Dolor Peace
by OmissionSoul
Summary: Craig and Kenny have been living in an orphanage all of their lives, until one day they get moved to a new location. However, their new home is anything but hospitable. [This story is also cross-posted to AO3 (Archive of our own) that has visuals to go along with the story. I suggest checking it out on there if you're curious about them.]
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This story deals with very heavy themes such as, gore, violence, abuse, emotional trauma and other dark subject matter. If you cannot handle such themes, or are triggered easily, then this story is _not_ for you and I suggest leaving it now. This will be the first and _only_ warning I will be giving.**

* * *

In a small dark room where a single window rests on it's wall, moonlight spills in giving way to a faint light source. Still to dark to see clearly but enough to make out the shape of the simple room. The door leading in to it slams open and a tall figure, a man, appears carrying someone smaller.

"Let me go!" the smaller person yells.

"Shut up," the man orders.

Another man appears and removes something from the smaller person, a blindfold. The smaller person is then tossed into the room, falling to the floor. The two men turn and the door to the room slams shut behind them.

"Hey!" the smaller person yells, getting up to their feet fast and slamming their fists on the door.

"Craig?" a voice asks, making it's presence known.

The small person freezes upon hearing their name be called and turns around fast to face the holder of the voice, "Who's there?!"

"It's me..." the voice replies, and another slightly smaller figure steps into the faint moonlight seeping in from the window, "Kenny."

Craig falls silent and slowly looks away, "Oh..."

"Have you seen or heard from any of the others?" Kenny asks a bit hesitantly.

Craig remains quiet for a few more seconds before replying, "Seen? No. Heard?" there's a brief pause, "...Yes."

"What do you mean?" Kenny asks and the other one falls quiet again, "Craig?"

"...When I woke up, I was being carried here, to this room. I'm pretty sure I passed by some other rooms on the way, and although I couldn't see them, I could hear them," there's another pause, "...I don't know what the hell is going on in this place, and I really don't want to find out. Sounds like that, shouldn't come from other human beings."

"...I see."

Kenny still saw that Craig was avoiding his gaze and he takes a cautious step towards the other.

"Don't," Craig says, noticing him out of his peripheral vision.

Kenny let's out a small sigh. _Still..._ he thinks to himself, and his thoughts wander. _How did this all happen?_

 **…**

A couple days ago, in an orphanage that rests in the woods near some mountains. A class is going on in one of it's many rooms. A young boy wearing all orange sits in it, listening to the lesson being taught that day. He finds himself losing interest in it though and looks around the room. His gaze lands on another boy that is wearing a blue chullo hat with a yellow puffball on it, who is looking at him. As soon as their eyes meet, the boy with the blue chullo hat quickly looks away. The boy in orange frowns a bit and looks up at a clock hanging on the wall, a small wooden cross rests just below it. He watches about a minute go by and there's a knock on the door. A man dressed in a white uniform enters the room and talks to the teacher, a sister. The sister then turns to face the class.

"Children, it seems as though something important has come up. Please follow me outside," she instructs and makes her way to the door.

Murmurs of the children start to rise as they get up and follow her outside into the courtyard. It seemed other kids from the orphanage, younger and older than them, were also emptying out of the building. The sister pauses for a moment before turning to speak again, as if debating something over in her mind.

"Wait here everyone," she tells them and walks away.

When the building is emptied out, a woman wearing a white suite and glasses comes out and talks into a megaphone.

"Hello everyone," she greets, "you are all probably wondering why you've been brought out here today. Well you see, the reason for that is... the ownership of this orphanage has been passed over," there's a murmur among the kids at that, "so what I'm now saying is that, we are the new owners of this building and all who are in it," she points around the courtyard. It's only then do most of the kids take notice of all the men in white uniforms, "And as such, being the new owners of it, we are moving you all to a new location. So please make your way on to the travel buses now, " all of the kids start to speak up at once, but the woman walks away handing the megaphone to one of the men in uniform, having finished said her piece.

At first many of the children refuse to move or budge, to which some of the men in uniforms forcibly begin to put them on buses. A couple of them start to cry and a few of them even try to run but get caught. Eventually though, they all are placed in the buses and moved. The windows of the buses were blacked out, making it impossible to look out of them. And the children sat in a part of the bus that was completely separate from the driver. When the buses come to a stop the children were taken off of them one by one, with no clue as to what was going on.

When the boy in orange is taken off of the bus, he squints his eyes from the bright white light that was now assaulting his retinas. He gets pushed along by a man who guides him to a door. As the boy's eyes adjust to the lighting, he sees that he's in a massive white room with the buses parked in it and that the other children are being moved to doors in it as well. Just as he takes everything in, his hood is pulled down abruptly and he's blindfolded. He hears the door open and gets shoved forward, causing him to nearly trip and fall. He tries to take off the blindfold but his hand get slapped away harshly. Although that doesn't stop him from continuing to try a few more times.

Eventually the boy comes to a stop when a hand grabs a hold of his shoulder. He hears another door open and is pushed forward. For a few moments nothing happens until the blindfold is suddenly removed from the his eyes, light attacking them again. He vision adjusts more quickly this time however and he looks around. He sees that he is now in a small white room with a toilet on the back wall. He looks behind him and sees that there are two men blocking the sole doorway in it.

"Hold them still," one of the men says and the other one grabs the boy's arms.

The boy struggles to break free, trying to get away and yelling in protest. But the other man grabs his face and shoves an object, a tube, into his mouth. The boy tries to spite it out but the man holds it in place. His mouth suddenly fills with a slimy-like liquid substance.

"Swallow it," The man shoving the tube in his mouth orders.

Everything in the boy's head is telling him not to and to spit it out. But he can't, the slimy liquid substance in his mouth keeps on building up more and more until he is forced against his will to swallow it. The man holding the boy's face let's go, removing the tube from his mouth.

"Alright," is all the man says, and the other one let's go of the boy and they both leave the room shutting the door behind them.

The boy falls onto his knees coughing, wondering what the hell was going on and who exactly these people were. He looks up at the toilet still not fully understanding why he was put in that room. A sudden pain washes over him from his stomach, he tightly holds onto it, trying to stop the coughing that was only making it feel worse. He manages to calm down for a few seconds, before something quickly comes rushing up the back of his throat. He rushes to the toilet, leaning over it as the contents of his stomach empty in to it. When he thinks it's passed, he sits away from the toilet going back to holding his stomach. A few minutes go by of him just sitting like that until he gets another feeling, this time however, it's not from his stomach. He wearily glances back up at the toilet with a pained expression.

 **…**

Kenny now lie in the small dark room with the window, recalling how long he had been kept in that room with the toilet. And the horrible feeling of having his insides coming out. He remembered how tired he felt after, when they dragged him from that room, then was forced to change clothes before being blindfolded again and tossed in to the current room he now occupied.

His gaze falls on Craig, who was now lying down with his back facing him. He stares at him for a few minutes, figuring that he probably felt just as tired and weary as him, before shifting down to the floor and trying to get some rest himself.


	2. Chapter 2

Kenny's eyes feel like they shut for a few mere seconds before opening again to a sudden loud bang. When he looks around there is now sunlight shinning in through the small window, the light from it bouncing off the white walls. He notices that Craig seems to have woken up from the sound as well. When he looks to the door of the room, two men in all white uniforms stand at it. One of them starts making their way into the room, walking right towards him.

Kenny sits up fast as the man approaches him. When the man reaches him, he stops in front of Kenny, looking down at him. The white uniform cap on the man's head shadowing out some of his face.

"Time to go subject 122," the man orders.

Kenny gives a confused look before the man leans over and grabs his arm. Kenny's first instinct of course is to pull back and try to get free. As he struggles with the man, he spots Craig get up from the corner of his eye and suddenly make a break for the door.

He tries to get past the other man standing in the doorway. But the man just grabs him and pushes him back, causing him to fall backwards onto the floor. He gets back up right away and tries again. This time however, the man punches him down to the floor. When he starts getting up to his feet again, the man lets out an irritated sound.

Kenny pauses for a moment and stops struggling with the man that's grabbing him,"Okay," he says quietly.

Craig stops instantly and the man holding on to Kenny begins to pull him along. They near the door and the other man moves out of the way. As they exit through the doorway, Kenny glances back at Craig to see that he is still avoiding his gaze. When they leave the small room, the other man shuts the door behind them with a loud slam.

Kenny's head turns forward again, his eyes are met with a very long white hallway before them. He doesn't start moving until he gets pushed forward by one of the men, causing him to start walking. He's lead down multiple halls with the men walking on either side of him. It's only now that he realizes just how big this place he's in is. He keeps on walking until they bring him up to a pair of white double doors.

He examines them as a feeling of unease starts to creep it's way in to him. The two men on either side of him grab a hold of his arms and open the doors with their free hands. When entering through the doors, he has to squint from the bright white light that hides behind them. After his eyes adjust a bit more, he sees that he's now in a big circular room with a metal table in the center of it. A huge light is shinning down from above it. The light is reflecting off what seems to be multiple clamps that are attached to the table. There are five people standing around it wearing white masks, gloves and scrubs, like ones you would see in a hospital. Their attention on him.

He also sees a big long reflective window on the right side of the room. He stares at it for a few moments before looking back to the metal table. Eyes widening in alarm as he now takes notice of a small metal stand that hides behind one of the people wearing masks. Seeing just enough of it to make out the surgical tools that rest on it.

"Bring subject 122 here," one of the people wearing a mask instructs.

His whole body tenses as the horror of what was going to happen to him sets in. The men on either side of him pull him forward and he digs his heels into the floor, trying to stop them. Struggling to break free of their grasp.

"No!" he yells. The two men on either side eventually lift him up off the floor by his arms, so that his feet no longer touch the ground. "Let me go!"

They carry him over to the metal table and forcefully push him down on it in a lying position on his back. Then they close the metal clamps around his wrists, ankles, thighs, arms and head to hold him in place.

"That will be all," another one of the masked people says.

And with that, the two men that brought him there leave the room. The remaining ones, wearing the masks, lean over and examine him. At least that what it seems like to him. The blaring light that's beating down hard on him from above, makes it difficult to see what their now shadowed out faces are doing. He tries to free himself from the metal clamps fierce grasp on him, but only finds that he can barely even move now.

"Inject the nutrient serum," Someone instructs. Kenny's gaze lands on someone who turns and picks up a needle. The sight of it causes him to struggle even more. "Hold the subject in place."

He feels two hands go to his arm and hold it steady. He then feels the sharp pain of the needle breaking his skin and entering it. He stares at it wide-eyed and fear filled, wondering just what the clear-like substance was spilling into his arm. When they finish injecting it, they remove the needle and put it away.

"We will now start subject 122's first experimentation."

"Experimentation?!" Kenny repeats horrified.

"Begin recording the testing footage of experiment 1," one of them says and leans over Kenny's midsection, holding something sharp, a scalpel, in their hand.

"Why are you doing this?!" Kenny shouts, but gets no reply. The one over his midsection pulls up his shirt and rolls down the elastic waistband of his pants a bit and slowly brings the scalpel to his now exposed stomach. "S-Stop!" he pleads, hoping that by some miracle this is all just a really bad dream. But the cold metallic feeling of the scalpel lightly pressing against his skin says otherwise.

Before he can get another plead out, something is being shoved into his mouth. It takes a moment for him to realize it's a belt. For a brief moment he is confused as to why, until the scalpel begins pressing down into his skin. He ends up biting into it as a scream of agonizing pain shoots up through him. Some hands help to hold him firmly in place, making sure that his stomach area is stilled as much as possible. The blade of the scalpel makes it's way across the lower area of his stomach, just under his navel. Following along in a small straight line from left to right. The pain of the blade tearing into his flesh makes his eyes water with tears. When he thinks they might never stop with how much it hurts. It does. The one holding the scalpel lifts it up and away, leaving behind a thin trail of opened flesh on his stomach.

"First injection and implant will be here," the one holding the scalpel instructs.

Kenny sees another person appear beside them with a longer needle than the one from before. The one holding the scalpel puts it down on the tray behind them and turns back placing their hands on either side of the freshly made incision. Then takes their thumbs and spreads it open, causing Kenny to let out a muffled whimper into the belt. The other person beside them takes the needle and sticks it inside of the cut causing Kenny to scream. The fluid of the needle gets fully injected then removed. The person turns and grabs something, a small packet of some kind Kenny thinks, but it's hard to tell through his teary vision.

Before he can fully register what's going on, another incision is being made deep into the cut again. Although this time when they do it, the pain feels more dull. But that doesn't stop him from screaming. He sees the other one's hand move over the cut and puts what he thinks is the packet inside of it. The one that had been holding the wound open let's go and picks something else up. Something with a small hook-like needle and black thread attached to it in one hand, and a small pair of scissors in the other. They lean back down over him and then begin to sew the hook inside the cut, then make their way to the surface of it. His muffled screams by this point would sound hoarse if they could be heard properly. And the tears in his eyes had completely blurred his vision by now. There's a final snip of the scissors as the person over him leans away.

"This will be all for today's experiment. Take subject 122 to the disinfectant area," one of them orders.

Kenny doesn't even notice as the belt and clamps are removed from him. His only focus in that moment is to try and stay conscious and not pass out. Two men in white walk over to him and grab him, picking him up by the arms and setting him onto his feet. He can very faintly feel his shirt falling back down to cover his stomach once again. They try to make him walk but when he falls down, so they pick him up by the arms and drag him out of the room.

"Alright, let's prep for the next subject," is the last thing Kenny hears from the room before the big double doors swing shut behind him.

He feels like he's being dragged around for quite while until till there's a stop.

"Here," one of the men says.

Kenny barely registers where 'here' is when they abruptly let go of his arms and he stumbles forward a bit hitting a door. He puts his hands on it and steadies himself up right. Just as he let's go of the door, his pants and shirt are being torn off of him in one swift movement.

"What are you-" he says in a panicked voice, not sure what it is they intend on doing to him.

"Go in to the room," one of them interrupts as they open the door.

He clenches his hands into fists, not wanting to go in to anymore unknown rooms. He doesn't get to object however, as he feels a shove push him forward from one of the men and the door slams shut behind him.

He looks around the room wearily, noticing a light above him illuminating a now small white-tiled windowless room, with a small drain and what seems to be three shower heads on each one of the walls, but the one the door is on. Before he can study the small room some more though, all three shower heads turn on.

He winches as the scolding hot water makes contact with his skin, and again as it makes contact with his fresh wound. He falls down to his knees and places a hand over it, trying to stop the water from making contact with it. It doesn't really do much, and the sharp stinging from it only seems to get worse. He remembers briefly hearing one say something about a disinfectant area and wonders if that's what this room is. He slowly moves his hand away from the wound and looks at it. He sees the trails of crimson red escaping from it and mix with the hot water onto the tiles beneath him. He stares at it absentmindedly in silence, said for the loud hissing sound from the shower heads, before placing his hand back over it and trying to make the pain stop again.


	3. Chapter 3

A door swings open fast as Kenny is shoved rather roughly into a small room, landing onto his hands and knees. He looks up as it slams behind him, noticing a familiar figure sitting curled up in one of the room's far corners. He can't help but feel some sense of relief upon seeing the familiar figure's face again. Although he couldn't say the other felt the same, as it seemed that he was still on edge with him around.

He shifts to sit into a more comfortable position, expecting there to be another long period of silence between them. However he is surprised when any building silence is broken by a quiet voice.

"Where did they take you...?"

His eyes widen from hearing the other speak after so long. Even more so that he is the one starting the conversation.

"Um... some kind of, experimental operation room or something," Kenny replies.

"Experimental operation room?"

"Yeah," Kenny tries to recall all that had happened, "they lead me down a bunch of hallways until we got to these double doors and..." he trails off.

"And what?"

Kenny debates if he should really tell Craig or not what had happened. Wondering if it was really a good idea or not to install more fear on to him.

"...They took me through them and forced me to lie down on this metal table," Kenny continues on, deciding that it might be best if Craig just knows. Besides, hiding it won't do any good in the long run anyways he figures. "They kept me in place using these metal clamps that were attached to it. They also stuck a needle in to my arm and then..." Kenny shudders from both recalling what had happened next and the cool drops of water that were dripping off his hair and being soaked up into his damping shirt. "Cut me open."

"They... what?" Craig says quietly, his head rising away from his knees now.

"They cut me open," Kenny repeats,"while I was still awake and fully aware of everything that was going on around me."

"But-why?" Craig asks.

"I don't know... they wouldn't answer anything I asked and acted as if I was less than human to them."

Another silence falls.

"Where did they cut you?" Craig asks hesitantly.

Kenny looks over at him for a moment before looking down to his shirt. He sits up onto his knees and lifts up the bottom of his shirt a bit, while also sliding the waistband of his pants down a little to reveal the small stitched wound that now rests just below his navel.

"Oh..." Craig's grip on himself tightening at the sight.

"I think I'm going to try and rest for a bit, so everything stops spinning," Kenny says trying to keep steady as he moves the clothing back into place. Wincing slightly as the waistband of his pants presses back down onto his wound again.

Craig doesn't say anymore as Kenny slowly lies down onto the floor. Tired and weary, Kenny soon finds himself drifting off when he shuts his eyes.

When Kenny comes to some time later, he sees that Craig is asleep with his back facing towards him now. The room was also dimmer, as it seemed to be evening. As he goes to sit up, he winces from the dull pain that rests in the lower half of his abdomen. The memories of what the cause of it is replay in his mind and he shudders at them.

His thoughts don't dwell on them long though as a loud bang is suddenly heard when the door to the small room slams open. He sees there are two men in white uniforms again and tenses immediately, wondering if they were there to take him away again. One of them enters the room and Kenny thinks they are coming for him again. But he soon realizes that it's not him the man is walking towards, it's Craig.

Craig was only now just waking up from his sleep because of the loud bang, sitting up rubbing his eyes and unaware of the man that was approaching him.

"Time to go subject 123," the man says standing over him now.

Craig looks up at the man, still not fully woken up. The man reaches down and grabs his arm and his eyes widen now realizing what is going. He tries to pull his arm back to break free of the man's grasp, but the man's grip won't loosen, instead it only grows tighter around his arm. Kenny soon finds himself getting onto his feet in order to try and help him. Not wanting him to experience the same torture that he himself had to endure. But as he starts towards the other boy, Craig stops struggling. Now noticing him out of the corner of his eye.

"Fine," Craig says flatly.

Kenny halts in place, as if in disbelief at what he just heard. Craig stands up and Kenny searches him, looking for any clues as to why he would willingly want to go with them. But he doesn't find any. And with that, Craig leaves with the two men. Another loud bang echos, signaling the door shutting behind them. Kenny's gaze falls downwards to the floor, a swirl of thoughts run through his mind trying to find the answer as to why. Why would Craig just go with them like that knowing the danger that may lie ahead for him? He clenches his hands into fists out of frustration.

 _Does he hate me that much?_ He thinks to himself.

The door to the small room bangs open again later on, when it's well in to the night. Kenny looks up from where he's sitting and sees a small figure get shoved into the room before the door slams shut again. He doesn't need proper lighting to know that it's Craig. He can tell.

"Ugh..." the other boy let's out a tired sounding sigh.

Kenny sits up straight, "Hey- are you-"

"I'm fine," Craig cuts off.

"But-"

"I said I'm fine," he repeats and sits down, holding a hand to his neck.

Kenny looks at him, "Why did you decide to go with them all of the sudden?"

"...Just leave me alone."

Kenny continues watching him, waiting for any signs that may show up in the other. But nothing shows and all the other does is avoid looking at him. Kenny could only wonder why, because he knew that trying to talk to him wouldn't work. All Craig would do is ignore any of his attempts at it. A younger image of Craig flashes through his mind, one that didn't feel like from so long ago. But it still was, maybe back six or seven years ago now, when they were a bit younger and it was the first real time that the two of them had ever really talked to one another. Things back then, weren't like how they were now between them. No.

They used to be friends...

 **…**

 _Thwack_

The sensation of something very hard and cold mixed with the after sting of a burning-tingling feeling spreads across a very young boy's face. A round object made of rubber falls from it, making a dull thud as it bounces a couple of times on the pavement below.

"Ow..." the young boy says as he holds his now stinging nose.

"Whoa- Kenny are you okay?" The young boy's friend, Stan, asks.

"What the- where'd that come from?!" another one, Eric, exclaims.

Kenny looks down at the object that hit his face, a basketball, and picks it up.

"Hey! Were you the one who threw that!?" Eric yells and Kenny looks up to see who he's yelling at. He spots a lone boy who stands on the basketball court. "I know it was you Craig!"

The lone boy, Craig, doesn't say anything however, he just stands there silently.

"You know, you should say sorry for that. It hit Kenny right in the face," the third boy of their group of friends, Kyle, tells him.

Craig's gaze falls downwards as they all look at him.

"OI! We're talking to you Craig!" Eric yells at him.

Kenny stares at Craig curiously, then begins walking over to him. He stops when he's standing directly in front of him and holds out the ball. Craig looks up at him.

"Here," Kenny smiles at him.

Craig looks down at the ball and hesitantly reaches for it.

"Sorry..." he apologizes quietly.

Kenny just keeps smiling at him, "It's okay."

"Come on Kenny let's go," Stan calls.

"Yeah, let's go somewhere else, where less weirdos around!" Eric exclaims, to which Kyle elbows him. "Ow- what didja do that for?! I'm only telling the truth! He's always alone and never talks to anyone!"

"Stop it Eric," Kenny says now looking at him.

"But he's so weeeeeeeird!" Eric whines.

Kenny looks back at Craig, who's attention is intently staring at the ball grasped in his hands.

"Eric come on, stop it," Kyle sighs.

"No, he's weird!" Eric shouts, "Weird, weird, weird!"

As Eric continues to taunt, Kenny notices Craig's grip on the ball tightening more at it.

"He's super wei-"

Before Eric can finish his sentence, a loud _Thwack_ is heard again. Everyone looks over at him shocked as an orange basketball falls from his face and onto the ground.

"Shut up!" Craig yells.

When Kenny looks at Craig again, he sees anger on his face but also sadness, like he's trying everything he can in order to not cry. Eric is still somewhat stunned by what just happened to him. But, when he reaches up a hand to his nose and the sharp stinging sensation of pain spreads throughout his face, his eyes begin to tear up.

"Waaaaaaaah!" Eric begins to cry, "Y-You hit me i-in the face! You freak!" he turns and starts running for the doors of the orphanage, "I'm telling on you!"

Craig's hands clench into fists and his shoulders tense. But only for a moment before he turns to walk away in another direction.

"Whatever," he mutters, leaving the basketball behind on the ground.

Stan and Kyle turn and talk to one another in quiet murmurs, as Kenny just watches him leave.

Later on that day, when the moon is high up in the night sky. Kenny lies wide awake and restless in his bed. He had been staring at the ceiling in his room for a good while now, but doesn't feel any more tired because of it. He glances over at the other occupant who he shares the room with, Stan, and sees that he seems to be fast asleep. Kenny let's out a quiet sigh and sits up, swinging his legs over the side of his bed. He stands between the narrow three feet of space between the two beds in the room, then walks quietly to the door. He tries his best to open the door as carefully as he can, so as not to disturb the other's sleep. But it ends up creaking despite his best efforts.

"Kenny?" a tired voice mumbles. Kenny stops and turns around to see Stan lazily prop up onto his elbows and look at him. "Where are you going?" he asks rubbing at his eyes.

"I can't sleep..." Kenny replies, "so I was gonna go and take a walk around to help."

"You're gonna get in trouble," Stan yawns.

"I'll be careful," Kenny smiles.

Stan shakes his head a bit and sighs lying back down into bed. Kenny leaves and shuts the door behind him quietly. He walks down the halls until he gets to a part of the orphanage he hasn't been to before, at least not that he can recall anyways. He looks around it as he walks down this unknown new area. It was a long hall with what he guesses are bedroom doors running along one side of the wall and big windows running along the other side. There was also a door at the end. He wonders vaguely if any of the other orphans sleep in any of the rooms here. When he gets closer to the end of the long hall, he hears something. It sounds like soft sobs of some sort. He sees the door at the end of the hall is slightly opened. Curiously he walks towards it and grabs the knob, pushing it open slowly. It creaks a bit and the sobs stop.

"W-Who's there?!" a voice demands.

When Kenny opens the door all the way, he sees that there, sitting on a bed, is Craig.

"Craig?" Kenny asks, "Are you... crying?"

Craig quickly turns his head away, "N-No!"

"Yes you are," Kenny says blatantly.

"Go away," Craig sniffs.

Kenny looks at him for a couple of seconds, unsure of what to do, then takes a few steps into the room,"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"If something is making you sad, you should talk about it. Cause I heard that will help make you feel lots better than keeping it all in," Kenny says reaching the side of Craig's bed. Craig doesn't respond and Kenny leans over the side of his bed, using his arms as leverage and examines him. "Are you crying because of what happened today? With the basketball?"

Craig looks at him for a second then slowly brings his knees up to his chest, "No..." he says quietly.

"Are you sure?"

Craig looks away and pulls his knees closer to himself, covering a bit of his face, "...Yes."

Kenny leans towards him, and stares intently, "Hmmmmm..."

"W-What?!" Craig looks back at him, unable to avoid him anymore.

"You're," Kenny squints his eyes at him, "lying!"

Craig's eyes widen, "N-No I'm not!"

"Yes you are, I can tell." Kenny says blankly.

"Wha- how?" Craig says confused.

"I just can," Kenny smiles.

A moment of silence falls, "...Why won't you just leave me alone?" Craig asks quietly, his gaze looking away from Kenny once again.

"Because..." Kenny starts, "you were crying and seem really sad right now and... you don't really look like you really wanna be all alone," Craig looks back at Kenny as if somewhat surprised. "So will you tell me why you're so sad?" Kenny asks, crossing his arms and leaning over to rest on the side of the bed.

"I can't..." Craig trails off.

"Why not?"

"Because, how do I know you won't go and tell them afterwords?"

Kenny looks at him puzzled, thinking about what he means by that. After a few seconds it clicks.

"Oh! Do you mean, Kyle, Stan and Eric?" he asks just to make sure.

Craig nods, "Yeah, how do I know you won't go off and tell them afterwards and then make fun of me some more?"

"More?" Kenny looks at him confused, "I didn't ever make fun of you."

"Your friend did, he kept on calling me weird and then..." Craig hugs his knees tightly to himself, "he called me a freak."

"Oh, Eric? Don't listen to him," Kenny tells him, "he's like that to everyone. Only reason he's with us is because no one else wants to be," he laughs, "and don't worry, I won't tell them anything if you tell me what's making you sad. I promise."

"...Really?" Craig asks unsure.

"Mhmm," Kenny nods, "you can trust me," he smiles.

Craig's gaze falls from Kenny's, and there's another brief silence again before he speaks up.

"It bothered me."

"What did?" Kenny asks.

"Being called a freak. It bothered me. A lot," Craig adds, "people are always looking at me strange or are avoiding me. They think I'm cursed or something because I'm the only one who has a room in this part of the orphanage. They think it's haunted here and that I was put here because I'm some sort of freak or something," he finishes explaining.

"Wha- that's dumb! Did you try telling them it's not true?"

Craig nods, "I tried talking to others but, I get a bit nervous when I talk to people sometimes, and they just end up giving me a strange look like they want to avoid me or something," he leans his head down onto his knees, "maybe... I really am a freak."

With that, Kenny is up and on his feet fast, "No!" he leans on his hands towards Craig. "You're not a freak!"

"But... nobody wants to be my friend."

"I will!" Kenny proclaims.

Craig looks up at him, "If you do that though, people will avoid you too..."

"So?" Kenny questions, "Let them."

Craig stares at the other for a good while before looking away again, "...No," he mumbles quietly. Kenny gives him a questioning look, "I don't want you to get the same looks from being around me," he adds on.

"But it's okay though, I don't mind," Kenny says, but Craig just shakes his head at him.

Kenny just looks at him confused, wondering why he won't let him be his friend. He really didn't care if people looked at him weird, so why then. He observes the other boy, his knees are up to his chest and his face is buried in them. Kenny wonders briefly if he's nervous about it, or even afraid to have a new friend. But still, a part of him did genuinely want to be his friend. Nobody should ever feel like their all alone. And he didn't think that Craig was mean or anything either. He crosses his arms and titles his head slightly as he contemplates on what to do. An idea suddenly forms and he uncrosses his arms quickly.

"I've got it!" Kenny says excitedly, "I'll just come and see you at nighttime like this!"

Craig looks at him confused, "Huh?"

"If we can't hangout during the daytime, because it will worry you, I'll just come and see you at nighttime like I am now!" Kenny explains.

"But, won't you get in trouble for that?"

Kenny smiles, "Not if they don't catch me."

"But-"

"No," Kenny cuts him off, "I've made up my mind. I'm going to come and see you every night. I'm going to be your friend," he says confidentially. Craig isn't quite sure on how to respond to him. So Kenny changes the subject to something else, as he takes a seat on the side of his bed. "So did you end up getting in to trouble?"

"What?" Craig asks confused by the sudden topic change.

"When you hit Eric in the face with the basketball," Kenny adds.

"Oh, uh... yeah."

"What happened?" Kenny asks curiously.

"I got scolded and was told to do some cleaning chores," Craig replies.

"Did you tell on Eric for what he called you?"

"No..."

"Wha- why not?!"

"I don't know..."

"Well that's not fair, he got away with it," Kenny frowns, "if he does it again, you should tell on him, okay?"

"...Okay," Craig says quietly.

"Good," Kenny smiles, "besides, if he had to do chores, it would probably be good for that rollie pollie to exercise a bit," he says flatly.

A small laugh escapes from Craig at that, and Kenny sees him smiling a bit. But as soon as Craig sees Kenny looking at him he stops.

"You should do that more," Kenny says.

"Do what more?" Craig asks a bit hesitantly.

"Smile. It's nice," Kenny answers.

"Oh..." Craig murmurs softly before yawning.

"You tired?"

"A bit."

"I guess I should go so you can get some sleep then," Kenny says getting up off the bed.

As he goes to walk away, Craig quickly grabs his hand, stopping him. Kenny looks back surprised.

"Wait, um, can you... uh, never mind..." he trails off and let's go of Kenny.

"What is it?"

"Nothing," Craig mumbles.

Kenny wonders what's the matter and why he would stop him from leaving like that. He thought the other boy was tired and wanted to be left alone to sleep. Then it hits him, alone... Craig was alone in this whole area of the building. There was nobody else here, nothing but stories of it being haunted by ghosts anyways.

"Do you want me to stay here with you till you fall asleep?" Kenny asks.

Craig eyes widen, "Uh- um... if it's okay with you," he replies quietly.

Kenny nods his head, "Sure it is!" he walks back over to the bed, "Can you move over a bit?" and Craig silently does, shifting over so there's enough space for Kenny to lie down next to him. "I'll be right here next to you. So you can rest easily tonight," Kenny smiles and pulls the covers over himself.

"Thanks," Craig murmurs.

"No problem," Kenny grins, "Goodnight."

Craig looks up at him, "Goodnight..."

Soon after they both drift off in to sleep.

* * *

 **A/N EDIT: Just a quick side note here, the way Kenny and Craig's subject names are read in the story are: One twenty-two (122) and One twenty-three (123). Thought I'd add this in if anyone was curious on how to read them as.**


	4. Chapter 4

Kenny lie resting his head against the cool wall behind him. His gaze drifting from the white ceiling down to Craig who was lying down facing away from him. Craig hadn't said a single word to Kenny since the day he was taken for experimenting and tossed back in the room holding his neck. To say that the silence is uncomfortable would be an understatement. The feeling of it in the small confined room was so thick in the air that, even dropping a ten ton bomb in it wouldn't even make a sound. Because the silence would smoother it whole.

He lets out a sigh, he wasn't quite sure just how much more of this he could stand. He was waiting patiently for Craig to be the one to engage with talking to him first and telling him what's wrong. But, if things continued on like this the whole entire time they were together in the small room then, he would for sure be driven to madness.

 _Why won't he just tell me what's wrong? What did I do to make him push me away so much?_

He thinks to himself. He had tried talking to him yesterday but, Craig just flat out ignored him yet again. He figured that the only way Craig will talk to him, is when he sees fit to it. But aside from Craig not talking to him, he also won't even _look_ at him. If Kenny goes to one side of the room he's facing, then he'll look away from him. And if he tries to go near him, he tenses up and moves away rigidly from him.

Kenny's gaze drifts away, elsewhere from the other boy. It hurt him that Craig was acting this way towards him and he didn't know why. But he had made up his mind that he would wait a bit more for Craig to come to him. Although, for how much longer he could wait, he wasn't sure of. He had hoped that when they were still at the orphanage, Craig would've come to talk to him about it, but he didn't. He would even go and look for him too and try talking to him himself but, Craig always found somewhere to hide from him. Out of sight out of mind, he figured.

But now that Craig was here, right in front of him in plain sight, it made this all the more harder for him. He leans forward and runs a hand through his hair, grabbing some of it out of frustration, trying to stop thinking about it. Because thinking of it would only end up making it worse. Instead he thinks of being much more concerned about the place they've been taken to, and why these horrible things were being done to them. But he had no idea what the hell was going on. All he knew right now is that, those men in uniform haven't come back at all since two days ago and that they haven't eaten since they got there.

However, he hadn't felt all that hungry since the day everyone was moved from the orphanage. Thinking back on it, he recalls one of the masked people from that room had said something about a nutrient serum when that needle with the clear liquid was injected in to his arm. He wonders if that has something to do with it. He also wonders what the hell was stuck inside of him then too, remembering a small packet of some sort. He can't help but shiver at the memory of it. The thought of possibly being taken back to that room again, wasn't something that was pleasant to imagine.

He looks around the room, knowing that they needed to find a way out of this place. Well, at least out of the room first. But the door to the room is sealed, with no handle on the inside, and the only other thing that would lead out of the small room, is a tiny drain that rests in one of the corners. Which he seemed to have figured out that it's usage was like that of a urinal. He also noted that he only ever had the urge to pee every so often since being there, nothing else. At least not since the first day, when he was taken to that small room with the toilet and forced to drink down that slimy stuff that was in that tube. That stuff probably had something to do with it he guesses. That and not eating any actual food either.

He looks back at Craig and thinks that maybe he should try to get some rest too. Anything to try and distract his mind from thinking so much right now. But he doesn't get the chance to. The door to the room slams open, causing him to flinch at the loud sound breaking the deafening silence.

"Subject 122 come here," one of the two men at the door orders.

Kenny looks at them confused before remembering that they had called him that before, and realizing that they were talking to him. One of the men starts to make their way over to him, and he tenses.

"Subject 122, if you resist we will use force to move you."

The sense of unease Kenny felt from not only the words, but knowing where they would probably take him, made him want to not move even more. But it wasn't like he had any other choice either. It was either go willingly with them or possibly get beaten and dragged off by them. He stares for a few more moments before rising up to his feet and walking towards the door.

This was not what he meant when he was thinking about needing a distraction from his thoughts.

 **…**

Back in a bedroom, from around five or four years ago. Kenny and Craig sit in the dimly lit room, where the moonlight from outside shines in through the window. They sit on Craig's bed laughing about something or another. Craig laughs so hard that he snorts and stops almost abruptly when he does so. Kenny looks at him surprised, never having heard him laugh like that before.

"Did you just snort?" Kenny asks.

Craig covers his mouth fast, "N-No!"

Kenny smiles, "You don't need to cover your mouth. It's a normal sound to make," he moves Craig's hand away from his mouth.

"No it's not," Craig replies, "it's a weird sound that people would make a ton of fun of me for."

Kenny frowns, "Well... I think it's a really normal sound, that's kind of cute. So there," he smiles again.

Craig falls silent and looks down towards his knees that are pulled up to his chest. Kenny reaches a hand up, placing it on Craig's head, causing him to look back up because of it.

"You don't have to hide it from me okay?" Kenny says softly.

"...Okay," Craig mumbles back, "I um..."

"What is it?" Kenny asks now removing his hand from Craig's head.

"I'm... glad that you came in to my room that time... and we became friends and stuff."

Kenny's eyes widen slightly, being a bit surprised by Craig's sudden words. Craig averts his gaze from him, from what Kenny guesses is some small embarrassment at having said that.

"Me too!" Kenny exclaims, leaning forward fast and placing his hands onto Craig's knees. Craig quickly looks back at him at that. "I'm glad that we became friends! And that I got to know you and stuff! I'm really glad!" he smiles widely at Craig.

Craig looks at him for a moment, then slowly smiles back at him. And before they know it, they both start to laugh again. Any silence that may have been there, being taken over by their laughter.

 **…**

When Kenny comes to, he's lying on the cold floor of a very familiar small white room again. He groggily sits up, placing a hand on his head from dizziness.

 _A dream?_ He thinks to himself, _No, a memory.._.

He looks around the room and sees that he's alone, and begins to remember that they took Craig away for experimenting on yesterday. He wonders vaguely if he will be brought back to the room or not. He hopes it's the former rather than the latter. Thinking of Craig, reminds him of that memory. When Craig seemed so happy back then. He let's out a sigh, knowing that he won't be able to wait much longer on Craig.

He looks up at the small window and begins recalling what had happened to him the last time he was taken away. Which was a few days ago now. He remembers being taken to that room and another incision being made on his stomach and them sticking another weird small patch inside of him. He also remembers all of the needles poking and prodding him. And although he's glad to not have been taken back there since, he has a very strong feeling that he will be returning there soon.

The door to the room opens, and Kenny looks towards it. There in the doorway is Craig being held up by the arms. He gets shoved into the room a second later and falls to the ground.

"Craig!" Kenny exclaims, getting up.

"Subject 122."

Kenny stops in place and looks over at the two men by the door.

"Come with us. It's your turn now."

Kenny looks back at Craig who's collapsed on the floor, and without another thought he rushes over to him and kneels down next to him.

"Subject..." one of the men warns.

Kenny glares up at them briefly before looking back down at Craig. He notices Craig inhale and feels a wave of relief wash over him because of it, being glad that the other was still breathing. Suddenly he's yanked up by the arm, and the next thing he knows he's face to face with one of the men.

"We will drag you out of here if necessary," the man threatens.

"Fine," Kenny glares at him and pulls his arm out of his grip.

He walks towards the door, glancing back once more at Craig lying on the floor, before the door closes harshly behind him. All he can do is hope that the other is alright by the time he gets back.

When he is brought back to the room hours later. It's dark, having been nighttime now. The door closes behind him, and he slumps down onto on the floor in a sitting position. His gaze wanders around the small area until it lands on a familiar figure that now lies next to the wall on the left side of the room. He hopes that the other boy had moved himself over there, and that it wasn't somebody else that did. With some effort he gets up again, making his way over to the other. When Kenny reaches him, he kneels down beside him, looking for any signs that the other boy was still alive and breathing.

"Craig?" He says quietly, " are you okay?"

No response.

"C-Craig?"

Hesitantly he reaches out a hand and goes to touch the other boy's neck. He lightly presses his index and middle fingers onto it and waits to feel for a pulse. After what feels like forever from some really strained out seconds, he feels one and let's out a sigh of relief, moving his hand away. Just as he does, he sees Craig shift a bit. He stops, half expecting Craig to wake up and turn around to ask what he's doing. But when a good some seconds go by and he doesn't move again, Kenny figures that he's probably just sleeping. He stares at the other boy's back for a bit longer. A part of him wanting to lie down next him, but knowing that if he did, the other would most likely freak out upon awaking because of it.

Not having enough energy to get all the way back up, Kenny just crawls at a sluggish pace to the other side of the room and lies down, facing towards the wall. Thinking it's best to just let Craig be for now. He closes his eyes and drifts off.


	5. Chapter 5

A strange mixture of images come to light. A door leading down to a basement, a feeling of overwhelming sadness, someone crying a lot, the back of somebody running away and a voice screaming out in the dark.

" _Just leave me alone!"_

Kenny's eyes shoot wide open, and he finds himself staring up at an all white ceiling. His gaze quickly looking over and landing onto Craig. His eyes widen with a bit of surprise when he realizes that the other is now sitting up awake looking right at him. However, as soon as their eyes make contact, Craig quickly averts his to elsewhere in the room. Not even a second later, the door to the room opens. Kenny sits up, as the two men in uniform come into the room.

"Subject 122 come with us," one of them says.

Kenny slowly stands, curious as to why they want to take him away again so soon. He glances back over at Craig who is still looking away from him. And a part of him feels like he might have just imagined what he saw. It was after he had just woken up after all, and he still felt a bit out of it.

Later, as Kenny lies on the cold metallic surface of the table. His eyes being assaulted by a giant flaring light, he listens to what the masked people around him say. It was the only thing he could do.

"They want us to double the dosage on this one," one of the many masked voices says.

"Recording has been initiated," another masked voice says.

"Let's begin," the first voice says, "we'll insert this one in to the left side of the abdomen, seeing as to how we already have one on the right side."

Kenny sees one of them pick up a scalpel and grimaces knowing what's about to happen next. He doesn't bother to beg or plead anymore, not just because there's a belt in his mouth preventing him from doing so, but because he knows that no matter how much he tries, these people will not listen to a word he says. He knows that they do not think of him as anymore than some lab rat to experiment on and poke and prod at. He doesn't even think that they see him as a human being. Because if they did, they wouldn't be doing such horrible things to him.

He sees another beside the one holding the scalpel, lift up a needle. They come closer to his left side and inject the needle into him, causing him to flinch.

"Alright," they say removing the needle.

The one holding the scalpel, then leans forward and begins pressing it down into Kenny's skin. And Kenny's long hours of agonizing muffled screams commence.

Elsewhere in that vicinity, behind the big long reflective window that over looks the operating room. A woman with short brown hair, long thin framed rectangle glasses and a white lab coat stands. She watches the experiment with full intent as a few others observe and write stuff down onto their small clipboards. She watches as the masked ones, cut and open Kenny up without so much as even having any sort of reaction to it.

Kenny continues to let out muffled screams and his eyes begin to well up with tears, from the excruciating pain. His consciousness begins to slip in and out. His body having been very tried from the lack of proper sleep and the experiments that are being done to him. He shuts his eyes as the tears being to spill over and an image flashes through his mind for a split second. An image of someone telling him to leave them alone. Suddenly a strong jab of pain strikes him, but not his body. No, this type of pain was something that hurt much more than even the horrible pain being inflected onto his physical being right now.

He opens his eyes again, only to see a mesh of blurry faces all looking down at him and a faint voice of sorts echoing through the back of his mind. Like a memory that's calling out to him, demanding that he pay attention to it and nothing else. So he does. With one last blink up at the blurry faces and blaring overhead light, he closes his eyes and fades away in to the distant memory that calls him.

 **…**

"So then he uses his best voice to mimic him and, we all laugh!" Kenny laughs out. However when he notices that the other boy who he's talking to doesn't as well and is looking elsewhere, he stops and gives a concerned look at him. "Hey, are you okay?"

He waits a few seconds but there's no reply.

"Craig?" Kenny tries asking again.

This time the other boy looks over at him, when hearing his name be called.

"Huh? Oh, uh-y-yeah, I'm fine."

Kenny arches s brow, "Are you sure? Because you've been acting kind of out of it lately."

"Yeah..." he replies with a small smile.

"...Alright," Kenny says, although not fully convinced, "but if there is something bothering you, you know that you can talk to me about it right? I'm here for you."

Craig's gaze falls downwards, "I know..." he says and moves to lie down, "let's sleep now, I'm tired," he turns over to his side so that his back is now facing Kenny.

"Okay..." Kenny replies and lies down next to him.

He looks at the back of the other's head and can sense that something is off about him, like he's suddenly more distant that night for some reason, but he's not sure why.

Kenny awakes early the next morning, like usual, and gets up out of Craig's bed slowly, so as not to wake him. He quietly opens the door to the room and looks back at Craig, who is still sleeping with his back faced towards him. Kenny stares for a moment then turns back towards the door and exits the room.

He tries he best to be as quiet as possible while heading through the halls and back to his own room. He carefully tries to open his bedroom door so that it won't make any sound, but like usual, it creaks. He stops and glances over at his roommate, Stan, and sees that he's still fast asleep. He let's out a small sigh and quickly enters the room, closing the door behind him. As he goes to lie down in his bed, he hears a voice.

"Kenny?" Stan mumbles out as he slowly sits up.

Kenny freezes in place.

"Uh-yeah, hey, what's up?" Kenny replies trying to remain calm.

"Did you just get back now?"

Kenny laughs nervously, "What? No. I've been here the whole time."

Stan looks at Kenny unconvinced.

"You know, I've been trying my best to let it slide and not keep asking you where you've been heading off to every night, for the last four years. But there's only so many times that I can keep being woken up by that door, from you sneaking in and out of here. Before I have to start to wonder... what the hell do you do every single night for so long?" he says questioningly.

"I told you, I just go out exploring and stuff," Kenny says averting his eyes, " now I'm going to get what little sleep I can left so, night-night," and he lies down pulling the covers up and over his head, facing towards the wall.

However he doesn't get the chance to even close his eyes, as a pillow comes crashing down onto the side of his head hard. Kenny quickly sits up and looks to see a very annoyed looking Stan standing over the side of his bed.

"What the hell?!" Kenny shouts at him.

"Look you," Stan says irritated, "I'm getting really fed up with your, 'leave late, come back early' and not explain why routine, okay?"

"I-"

"I know you're not going out exploring every night," Stan says cutting him off, "so don't even try that. Just tell me the truth man."

"Stan..." Kenny says sighing, "I already told you I-" he doesn't get a chance to finish the sentence before he's met with another smack of the pillow to his face. "Hey!"

"The truth," is all that Stan says.

Kenny frowns, "Why do you want to know where I wander off to so much?"

"Because," Stan says, "what if something happens to you and you go missing or something? What do I tell people? And not just that but, you're my friend too dude. I worry about you."

Kenny's gaze drops, a feeling of guilt washes over him from hearing that. And he slowly starts to realize how similar it is with him and Craig.

"I..." Kenny sighs again, "I can't say."

"Why?" Stan asks confused.

"Because I can't."

"Come on Kenny."

"I'm sorry but, I just can't."

A couple seconds of quietness go by before a familiar sensation of the pillow making contact with Kenny's face is felt yet again. He looks up at Stan confused.

"Fine then," Stan says, "I'll just keep smacking you with my pillow, till you do tell me."

And before Kenny can even say anything, he's smacked in the face again.

"H-Hey!" Kenny manages out, covering his head.

 _Smack._

"I can't!" he shouts again.

 _Smack._

"Dude!" he pleads.

 _Smack._

"I made a promise- so I can't!" Kenny finally shouts out.

Stan stops.

"A promise?" Stan repeats back to him.

"Yeah... I promised I wouldn't tell anyone where or what I do at night," Kenny says quietly.

"Why?" Stan asks.

"Because it's our secret."

"Our?" Stan arches a brow.

When Kenny realizes that he may have said too much, he shakes his head, "It's nothing!"

"Who are you going out to see?" Stan asks curiously.

"Look, just forget I said anything alright?"

"Why is it such a secret? Why can't you just tell me?"

"Because I don't want him to hate me!" Kenny blurts out, the amount of interrogating questions getting to be a bit too much for him by this point.

"Who's him?" Stan asks, eyes widening slightly.

Kenny quickly covers up his mouth, and curses to himself internally for speaking without thinking.

"Kenny?" Stan asks, then pauses and goes to sit down on his bed facing him.

Kenny gradually removes his hands from his mouth. "Look it's, hard to explain..." he sighs for what feels like the umpteenth time that morning.

"Why? Are you secretly dating this guy or something?" Stan asks blankly.

Kenny's full attention shoots to Stan, "What?! N-No! It's not like that!" he waves his arms back and forth as if to try and wave that idea away or something.

Stan tilts his head slightly, "You sure?"

"Yes!" Kenny exclaims, "We're just friends!"

Even though Kenny says this, for some reason that doesn't stop a strange burning sensation from forming in his cheeks.

Stan stares blankly at him before shrugging, "If you say so," he says, although not sounding all that convinced.

"We are..." Kenny mumbles out, his cheeks still burning for some odd reason.

"So who is this friend that you've been secretly going to see at night then, for the past four years or so?" Stan asks.

And Kenny, still having been caught off guard by the other question he was asked. Ends up not thinking to clearly when he answers, "Craig."

"Craig?!" Stan repeats back surprised, eyes going wide.

Kenny swears to himself again when he realizes the grave mistake he just made.

"N-No! You didn't hear me say that okay?! It's just your imagination!" Kenny says, trying to take back what he had just let slip.

Stan continues to just stare at him, shocked. Kenny raises his hands up to his face, and let's his head fall into them with a very exasperated sigh. Some more minor silence goes by between them, before Stan decides to say something.

"Look man, I wont tell anyone if it worries you that much okay?" he tells him, and Kenny glances up at him, "I can see how much this means to you, so I won't say a word to anyone about it alright?"

Kenny looks back down, still in disbelief that he let such a thing slip out. And so causally too. All he can do, is pray that Craig doesn't find out about this somehow. He can't stand the thought of him hating him for breaking his trust like this.

"Hey, Kenny," Stan says and Kenny looks back up at him, "I'm serious, I won't tell anyone okay?" his expression no longer a shocked one, but rather a more serious one now, "I'm your friend and I promise it."

Kenny smiles faintly at him, "Thanks."

He didn't really feel any better about Stan saying that, because he still had let slip the secret in the first place. But at least it was something rather than nothing he guessed. He just hoped that Stan would keep true to his word.

With a nod, Stan turns to lie down into his bed, "Now let's get some sleep before we have to go for breakfast."

Kenny readjusts himself back into bed, "Yeah," he replies, pulling the covers back up and over him.

"And Kenny," Stan adds, and Kenny glaces over at him, "If you ever need to talk to me about your late night love affairs, just know that I'll lend you my ear okay?"

Just as soon as the burning feeling had begun to fade away from Kenny's face, it returned in full force at those words, "Goodnight Stan!" he replies annoyed.

"Morning," Stan corrects.

With an irritated grunt, Kenny turns abruptly over to face the wall, ignoring the laugh that comes from behind as he does so. He has a very strong feeling that this won't be the first nor the last time, that Stan will be saying these sorts of things to him. And it makes him all the more regret letting that secret he had been so careful with, slip out.

Later on that day, when it's well past morning time. Kenny is hanging out with his friends Stan, Kyle and Eric. Although the last 'friend' was debatable.

"Man why does it always have to be so frigging cold around here?" Eric complains.

"Do you ever _not_ complain or whine about anything?" Kyle asks annoyed.

"Shut up Kyle!" Eric shouts back, and Kyle glares at him.

"Okay you guys, don't start again," Stan sighs, "but I will agree that it is pretty cold out today, so let's go inside to play."

"Hah!" Eric laughs.

"Alright," Kyle grumbles, crossing his arms.

Kenny just smiles at the whole exchange as they start to head inside. But when he spots something off in the distance, something blue and familiar by a tree alone, he stops.

"Um, you guys go on ahead," he muffles out through his coat to the others, "there's something I wanna go and check on," and he starts heading off.

"Okay, later I guess," Kyle says with slight confusion. He looks over at Stan who just smiles a bit then shrugs and walks inside.

When Kenny walks over to Craig, he sees that he is reading a book while sitting down in front of the tree. He scans the area one more quick time, making sure no one else is around, knowing how Craig is about these things. But figures that like his friends, everyone else is probably playing inside too.

"Aren't you cold reading that out here?" he asks smiling down at the other boy.

Craig looks up at him for a moment before looking back down at the book in his hands, "Hey," is all he replies with.

Kenny frowns, "What? Are you not happy to see me or something?" he jokes.

"I..." Craig starts but doesn't continue.

Kenny takes a sit next to him, "You what?" he tries to pry, but Craig doesn't reply, "Craig what is it? What's wrong?" he says growing more concerned, "You know if something is wrong, you can tell me right? I'm here for yo-"

"I think we should stop hanging out," he interrupts Kenny.

Kenny looks at him shocked, "W-What?"

"And I don't think you should come over at nighttime anymore too."

Kenny continues looking at him shocked, "Why are you-"

"I think it'd be best if we stop being friends."

"Why are you saying this all of the sudden?! Where is it coming from?! You don't actually mean it do you?!" Kenny starts to yell, as a sudden sinking feeling begins forming inside of him.

Craig continues to look at the book he's holding, ignoring him.

"Craig!" Kenny pulls the book away from him, "Look at me! Look at me and tell me that you don't mean that!"

But Craig continues to look away from Kenny, and begins to bite down onto his lower lip.

"Craig, please..." Kenny pleads, tears starting to sting at the corners of his eyes, "why-"

Craig gets up suddenly, "Just because okay?!" he shouts and grabs the book out of Kenny's hand.

He then turns and starts to walk away.

"Craig!" Kenny calls out after him.

And Craig runs, his legs carrying him as far away as possible from Kenny, who stands there, sad and confused by what just happened. Left completely in the dark, as to why he's suddenly acting this way towards him.

"Why..." is the only thing that comes to Kenny's mind.

As the day goes on and late evening falls, Kenny finds himself walking through some of the orphanage's halls again, even though curfew was nearing. Thoughts swarming on what happened earlier in the day with Craig. After that had happened, he didn't see Craig for the remainder of the day. He wonders if maybe he went back to his room, and debates on whether or not he should respect what Craig told him, or completely disregard it and go and see him. Kenny let's out a sigh of frustration, not really knowing what to do, or understanding this whole thing. He didn't get why Craig had wanted to stop being friends with him all of the sudden, and couldn't understand why he didn't explain his reasoning for it.

As Kenny passes by a hall, he hears something. He looks down it and sees a small group of some of the other orphanage's boys walking down it. They pass by Kenny and turn down another one of the halls snickering and laughing a bit. Kenny watches them as they continue down the other hall.

"Yeah, did you see his face though?" he over hears one of them say.

For some reason, hearing that unnerved him a lot. As he turns to start heading down the hall again, he hears something faint from the hall that group of boys came from. He stops and looks down it, then begins walking that way instead.

He hears what sounds like banging on something. As he gets further and further down the hall, the banging grows more and more louder. It keeps getting louder until he comes to a door. He's pretty sure that the source of the banging lies behind it. And it takes him a second to realize that the door leads down in to the basement of the building. He wonders just what exactly is behind it, and what could be down there as he reaches out a hand to the knob.

He swallows hard, as the thought of it possibly being a ghost runs through his mind for a split second. When he opens the door, he sees that there's a set of stairs leading down behind it. Stairs leading down in to a dark abyss. As his eyes adjust to the new darkness, he can faintly make out something at the bottom of the stairs. He sees what appears to be another door down there and also what seems to be a chair placed in front of it, wedged right under the knob, keeping it shut. He wonders vaguely why that's there when the banging starts up again. But this time he also hears a voice.

"Let me out! Please!"

Kenny's eyes widen, and the next thing he knows, he's rushing down the stairs. Feeling like he's going faster with each word of the pleading voice asking to be let out. He reaches the bottom in about three or four seconds, from skipping over some of the steps. He then quickly grabs the chair and moves it out and away from the door it's holding in place. The voice is so clear to him now and there's no doubt about who the source of it is. He grabs onto the doorknob and swings the door open.

There, sitting on his knees, hands still up in the air from where the door was seconds ago, and looking up at Kenny with tear filled eyes and a tear streaked face is Craig.

"Craig..." Kenny says quietly.

And for one split moment, Kenny sees what can only be described as pure relief washing over Craig's face, before it changes quickly into some kind of realization or other. Craig hurriedly gets up and walks past Kenny.

"Hey- wait!" Kenny shouts and grabs his wrist, "What happened? Why were you-"

"It's nothing."

"Nothing?" Kenny looks at him in disbelief, "You were trapped down here! Why were you trapped down-"

"Look it's none of your business!" Craig cuts him off sharply, "So just..." he yanks his wrist free of Kenny's hold on it, "stay out of it!"

And with that, Craig runs up the stairs and leaves. Kenny's eyes fall down onto the bottom step in front of him, a hand making it's way up to his chest. It squeezes tightly at his shirt, grabbing a hold of something that can't be reached no matter how hard he may try to grab at it. A feeling of something slowly beginning to pull and strain at him from the inside starts to spread.

"It hurts..."

Sometime later, Kenny finds himself back in his room, staring blankly up at the ceiling. Unable to sleep or think of anything. Aside from the numbing hollow feeling that seems to be steadily eating away at his insides now.

"You're not going to see Craig tonight?" Stan asks.

Kenny looks over at him and sees that he is fully awake also, "No..." he mumbles out and looks back up at the ceiling.

"Did something happen?"

"...Kind of."

"What was it?"

"I..." Kenny trails off, not really even sure if he should be saying any of this, but at the same time, not really caring at the moment either, "I'm not sure."

"What do you mean?" Stan asks.

"Well earlier today, he said we should stop being friends. I don't know why."

Stan arches an eyebrow, "He didn't say?"

"No," Kenny shakes his head.

"Did you try asking him?"

"Yes. I tried asking him why, but he won't say," Kenny's brows furrow together, "I'm not sure, but I think that something is going on with him."

"Going on?"

"Like, he might be getting picked on or something," Kenny adds.

"What makes you think that?" Stan asks.

"I found him... locked in a room today. There was a chair blocking the door so that he couldn't get out."

"What- seriously?!" Stan exclaims, "Who would do that?"

"I'm not sure..." Kenny replies offhandedly, "and I feel like he's pushing me away or something too because of it," his hand had began to grab at his chest again.

His thoughts go back to that small group of boys he saw before. He recognized some of them but never ever really interacted with any of them. The orphanage they all lived in was pretty big, and there was a pretty big size of kids. Well boys mainly, because it was an all boy's orphanage, said for a few nuns who taught them some of their classes that all resided in the building. He didn't really interact with all of them though, too many names to remember. Boys of all ages were there after all.

"I think you should try and tell him how you feel about all this, and see what happens," Stan says after a long silence had begun to set in.

"But what if he won't listen to me?"

"Then keep on trying till he does. He means a lot to you doesn't he?" Stan asks, to which Kenny nods at, "Then don't give up, keep holding on. I'm sure he'll come around eventually."

"Yeah... maybe," Kenny murmurs, "I'll keep trying."

"Good," Stan smiles at him.

"Thanks," Kenny says, returning smile faintly.

Soon after that, they both try and get some sleep.

When the next day arrives. Kenny, Stan and Kyle are walking down one of the many hallways in the building.

"Man that lesson today was super boring," Stan yawns out.

"I don't know, I didn't think it was that bad," Kyle says.

"Are you kidding? Dude, that class totally sucked!" Stan exclaims.

Kenny let's out a small muffled chuckle, "Mmpfh."

"See, Kenny agrees!" Stan says pointing at him and Kyle just rolls his eyes.

As they walk outside into the courtyard, they spot a big crowd of people in the center of it.

"Huh, looks like something's going on over there," Stan says.

"Fellas! Fellas!"

The all look over to see that a kid named Butters, whose real name is Leopold, but everyone called him Butters on account of him being very clumsy and such. That and along with kids liking to give out nicknames that amuse them and things like that, so his name had pretty much ended up being stuck that way.

"It's a fight! There's a fight going on!" he says enthusiastically.

"A fight?" Kyle repeats.

"With who?" Stan asks.

"It's with Eric and uh, that quiet kid, Craig, I think it was," Butters explains.

Kenny looks instantly at the growing crowd and heads over towards it.

"Kenny?" Kyle asks as he walks away.

As Kenny reaches the crowd, he begins to push his way through it till he reaches the center's opening of it. He stops when he sees Craig on top of Eric throwing punches, and stands there stunned.

"What is going on here?!"

Everyone falls silent then as one of the nuns rushes over to the crowd. She parts the kids as she make her way through it. She then spots the two of them fighting.

"Alright, that is quite enough!" she shouts as she pulls Craig off of Eric, "What happened here?"

Eric sluggishly gets up to his feet, his face all bloody and bruised, "He..." he sniffles out, "Craig, he just started to attack me for no reason."

"What?!" Craig yells.

"I was just minding my own business and he..." Eric starts to cry heavily, "waaaaaaaah!"

"You-" Craig starts but is cut off.

"Alright, both of you come with me. We're going to the office," the nun orders as she goes behind them and ushers them forward.

They pass by Kenny as they head out of the crowd of onlookers, and Craig looks over at him for a second before quickly looking elsewhere. They then head inside of the building.

Some time later, Kenny finds himself walking down the main hallway were the office is. As he does, he spots Craig who now seems to be exiting it.

"Hey," Kenny says as he approaches Craig, who doesn't respond, but instead turns to walk away from him. "H-Hey!" Kenny runs around him to stop him from walking, "What is going on with you?"

"Move," is all Craig replies with.

"No, tell me what's going on with you. Why are you acting so distant lately?"

"Move."

"Why do you want to stop being friends all of the sudden? Did something happen? Is someone picking on you and making you do this?" Kenny asks concerned, "Are you being bull-"

"It's none of your business alright!?" Craig snaps, "So move out of my way!"

But Kenny doesn't budge. He stands there and looks at the other boy intently, causing him to look away. Craig instead goes to step around Kenny then, but he blocks him from doing so.

"Get out of my way," Craig says in a low voice.

"No," Kenny replies, "Not until you tell me what's going."

"There's nothing to tell."

"Then look me in the eye and say it," Kenny orders, and Craig keeps his gaze elsewhere, "Craig... please tell me what's wrong, I'm worried about you."

"Just leave me alone," he says in a quiet voice.

"No."

Craig's gaze suddenly snaps up to Kenny. And he glares at him.

"Look. It's none of your business what is going on with me, so just leave me the hell alone already!" he screams.

Kenny is momentarily taken aback by Craig's sudden outburst but continues to stand his ground.

"Of course it is! I'm your friend and I care about you!" Kenny exclaims.

"I told you... we're not friends anymore," Craig tells him.

A small tinge of pain aches in Kenny's chest at that, "Well I still think that we are."

"We're not."

"Why won't you just tell me? Why is there a change all of the sudden? We tell each other everything, so why won't you tell me now?!" Kenny yells, frustration getting the better of him.

"Because you're so annoying, that's why!" Craig yells back, and Kenny's eyes widen in shock, "You're always coming over to my room and bothering me and you won't leave me alone! And I..." he clenches his hand into a fist, "only talked with you because it was pitiful and I felt bad for you. But now I've just grown tired of putting up with you. So don't talk to me anymore, or come to see me at night, or anything! Just..." he takes a step around Kenny who's now to stunned to stop him from doing so. "Leave me the fuck alone."

As he goes to walk away, Kenny quickly comes back to reality and reaches out a hand to grab his shoulder and stop him.

"Wait-" Kenny starts but is cut off when a hand slaps away his own.

And for a brief moment Kenny sees Craig's expression change from anger into something like that of surprise or shock.

"Craig..." Kenny says aloud, and Craig turns back away from him, heading down the hall, "Craig!" Kenny yells. And suddenly Craig's running away from him again, "I don't believe you! You hear me?! Not one word! Craig!"

Craig continues to sprint down the hall ignoring any and all of Kenny's shouts after him. Running until he rounds a corner or something, _anything_ , to get away from Kenny. And Kenny just watches him go, not chasing after him, knowing that the other will just continue to run away from him. He stands there, not believing a single word that the darker haired boy had said to him.

He can't believe it.

He _won't_ believe it.


	6. Chapter 6

When Kenny comes to, he's back in that all too familiar small white room, looking up at the same four white walls as before. As he goes to sit up right he winces, remembering the last thing he saw was a blinding bright light over him before he passed out, and relived a slightly older memory.

Recalling how, even though Craig had kept on trying to push him away all the time, Kenny still tried everything he could to talk to him. He eventually did ease up and give Craig space, but it was hard for him to do. It still is. Having him still ignore him all the time. However after a certain incident had happened, Kenny had found himself watching Craig even closer than before. Even now, with Craig still trying to push him away, he can't help but worry about him.

The door opens and he looks up, seeing the two men in uniform there again, holding up Craig by the arms. They shove him into the room and he lands onto his hands and knees, before they shut the door leaving.

Kenny gets up, "Are you-"

"I'm fine," Craig says in a strained voice before starting to cough.

"No you're not," Kenny says and takes a step towards him.

"I said I'm fine. So just, stay where you are," Craig manages to say between coughs.

Kenny silently watches, as Craig's coughing gets more violent. Till eventually Craig falls forward onto the floor, gripping tightly at his chest.

"Craig!" Kenny exclaims rushing over to him.

As Kenny goes to touch him, Craig notices and sits up, backing away from him.

"I told you, I'm fine," he coughs out, "so just leave me alone."

"No you're not fine, just let me-" Kenny reaches out a hand and goes to touch him.

And Craig quickly slaps his hand away, "D-Don't touch me!"

Kenny's eyes widen, as Craig unsteadily leans back against the wall behind him.

"Why..." Kenny whispers out, "Why won't you just let me help you? Why do you keep pushing me away?!" the frustration he felt, causing his voice to rise.

Craig doesn't look at him and continues to cough, ignoring him and his question. Even though Kenny was right there in front of him, he still refused to acknowledge him. Memories from before play back in his mind, and that's it, that's his breaking point with Craig. He snaps, gritting his teeth and clenching his fist, having had enough of it. Of this. He grabs one of Craig's wrists, who immediately tries to free it of his grasp.

"Let me go-"

"Tell me why," Kenny demands as Craig continues to try and free his wrist, "why won't you answer me?! Why won't you let me help you?! Why do you keep pushing me away?!" he grabs a hold of Craig's other wrist when he tries to pry Kenny's grip on him off and pins them up onto the wall above him.

"Let me-"

"Why do you hate me so _fucking_ much?!" Kenny screams at him.

Craig falls silent and stops struggling all of the sudden.

Kenny's head drops downwards, his eyes starting to sting, "It hurts..." he says quietly, "It hurts having you push me away, it hurts not knowing why, it hurts that you won't let me in and it hurts that you won't even look at me anymore," tears being to trickle down his face as his raises his head back up to look at the other. "Please... look at me."

He notices Craig tense a bit.

"Please..." Kenny whispers.

It seems like time comes to a complete standstill, neither one of them moving. Only the soft sound of ragged breathing coming from Craig as he tries not to cough. Eventually though, one of them does move. Slowly, carefully, hesitantly as if they move to fast, something bad might happen.

"I... don't hate you," Craig says quietly, now looking back at Kenny, "I never have."

Kenny stares at him, his eyes widening, "Then why are you pushing me away so much? Please, tell me the reason," he pleads his voice shaky.

Craig falls silent again for a few seconds, "I don't hate you, it's just that being around you..." he pauses, "scares me."

"What-why?" Kenny says shocked and lets go of him, "Did I do something to you to make you scared of me?"

"...No," Craig murmurs.

"Then why are you scared of me?"

"I don't know... it's just that when you're around me, I start to feel this way... and I don't know why."

Kenny looks at him confused, not really understanding what he means exactly. For some reason the words he was saying didn't quite match up with the expression on his face at the moment. Something seemed a bit off about it. There was uncertainty in it, and perhaps... Fear? No, it's not fear, there was something else there. It was being masked behind something though, but he wasn't sure what.

"Why did you start to push me away back then?" Kenny asks, "Were you afraid of me then too?"

"That was... I..." he trails off.

"Craig, please," Kenny says softly.

Craig's gaze drifts to the side, his brows furrowing together, "You'll hate me a lot if I tell you."

"I don't and I won't if you do, I promise." Kenny reassures him.

Craig hesitates for a few seconds, as if debating on if he should speak or not but then finally does, "Back then at the orphanage," he starts, "on one of the nights while we were hanging out..."

 **…**

The two young boys sit on a bed, laughing about something or another like usual. The moonlight from outside the window shinning in next to them.

"Their faces were so funny!" Kenny laughs.

"Sounds like it was pretty funny," Craig chuckles.

He looks back at Kenny and for a split second he thinks his eye catches something through a small opened crack by his door, a shadow of some sort.

"Craig?" Kenny asks curiously.

The dark haired boy looks back over at his friend, "Huh? Oh, uh, yeah that was a funny story."

Kenny gives him a worried look as Craig looks back over at the door to see that the shadow, or whatever it was, is now gone. He tells himself that maybe he was just imaging it from being tired.

"What are you looking at?" Kenny asks looking back over his shoulder to the door.

"Nothing, I'm just tired is all," Craig says and lies down, "I think I'm going to get some rest now."

"Okay," Kenny replies and lies down next to him, "Goodnight then," he smiles.

"Goodnight," Craig says returning the smile.

And soon after, they start to drift off.

When early the next day arrives and Craig is heading down a hall to his morning lesson. Eric comes out from around a corner, blocking his path.

"Oh, hey there Craig," he greets, trying to sound causal.

Craig just offers him an annoyed look in return, and goes to move past him, but Eric blocks his path again.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, where are you going in such a rush?" Eric asks.

"To class," Craig replies flatly.

"Oh yeah huh?" Eric says like he didn't know, even though they shared the same class, "Well, before you go to it, I wanna ask you for something."

"What?"

"I want you to do whatever I say," Eric grins.

"And why would I do that?" Craig asks irritated.

"That is a good question Craig, why ever would you do everything that I want you to?" he pauses, "Let me see here..." then smirks, "How about last night, around 9:30pm, does that ring any bells?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh I think you know," Eric replies still smirking at him, "last night when I was on my way back from the washroom, I noticed someone walking down the halls. I thought it was suspicious for that time of night, so I followed them. Then they went down this one hallway, the rumored haunted filled one, all the way to the end where this person entered in to a room. I got curious and wanted to know what they were doing in there, so I peaked in and saw this person sitting on a bed, next to another _certain_ person. And I heard that person and the _certain_ person talking and giggling to one another."

Craig tenses almost instantly, "What are you getting at?" he asks cautiously.

"All I'm saying is, if this _certain_ person doesn't want rumors going around about them than..." an almost devious grin makes it's way onto Eric's face, "they better do as they're told to."

A panicked feeling creeps it's way into Craig, but he tries his best not to let it show, "Well, whoever this 'certain' person is. I'm sure they would rather drop dead, than want to take any orders from the likes of you," he says as calmly as he can, then pushes his way past the other chubby boy.

"You're making a mistake Craig!" Eric shouts after him.

Even though Craig ignores it and keeps walking, a strong sinking feeling starts settling in him.

About four days go by and everything seems to go on like normal around Craig. At least from what he's noticed. Still though, that didn't stop the feeling of unease from forming it's self in him. He glances around the classroom and spots a couple of the other boys in it whispering to one another then look over at him. The feeling of unease suddenly gets stronger at that. He glances quickly over at Eric and as soon as the chubby boy sees him looking at him, he grins. Craig's heart stops, and he glances back around the classroom one more time.

He tries to steady his breathing and tell himself that maybe, Eric was just messing with him and that maybe his mind is just playing tricks on him or something and that he's over thinking this too much. That is until he spots a boy in his class tap on another boy's shoulder and point back at him, both looking at him. Craig's eyes widen with fear as the two whisper with one another, glance at him again and laugh quietly to themselves.

One of the nuns walks in then, telling everyone to quiet down as the lesson begins. Craig looks back down at his desk, his hands held together, trying to prevent them from shaking and his grip tightening more with each passing second.

Three days pass after that, and Craig finds himself outside reading a book, despite how cold it is. However it's the only place where he can seem to be at ease right now, so he doesn't mind it too much. He'd been noticing some of the others in the orphanage, had been looking at him and laughing lately. He guessed that Eric had something to do with it, making good on his threat.

Although It looked like Kenny hadn't caught wind of it yet, and he wasn't sure if he should've been relieved by that or not. A part of him didn't want the other boy to be involved in this at all if he could help it. If someone else were to see him going in to his room, it would make it even worse. Then he wondered if Kenny were to stop going to his room at night, would that help with the current situation. But if he were to do that, then that would mean having to push the other away, and he wasn't sure if whether or not he would be able to do that. But if he didn't, than the other would also start to be made fun of and looked at strange, also having others talk about him behind his back. He didn't want that to happen to Kenny because of him.

"Aren't you cold reading that out here?" A familiar voice asks, breaking his thoughts.

When he looks up, he sees the said boy in question looking down at him smiling. And he feels his chest tighten before looking back down at his book again. Knowing what his decision was going to be.

"Hey."

He couldn't let the other be dragged down with him.

Later on around the evening, Craig is sitting in his room on his bed, his back against the wall and looking up at nothing really in particular. He thinks back on what had happened earlier that day with Kenny, and how he couldn't bring himself to go to the second half of the day's lessons because of it. Knowing that he'd only feel guilt if he saw him again. An image of Kenny in tears flashes through his mind for a split second then and the feeling of guilt deepens. He places a hand on his chest, recalling all of the things he had said to the other boy. He briefly thinks about just telling Kenny his reasons for why they shouldn't hangout anymore but quickly pushes the thought away, knowing how he was, he might end up doing something that could make things worse.

Craig sighs and shakes all of those thoughts from his mind, he had already made up his choice with what he had said earlier. Not wanting the other to be involved in it, if it can be helped. He would figure out what to do on his own. With that, he gets up off his bed and walks to the door, needing to use the washroom. When he opens it, he spots a small white note taped to it, and takes it off.

 _We need to talk. Come to the east wing hall, near the basement door._

It reads in small black scribbled writing. Craig stares at the small note questioningly, wondering who it's from because it wasn't signed. He wonders if he should go, but a quick thought of it possibly being Kenny makes him hesitate about it. He didn't know what he would do if it did turn out to be him, and what the note had said certainly lined up with that too. He tries and think of who else it could possibly be when another split image flashes through his mind. Eric. He clenches his hand into a fist at the thought that it could be the short chubby boy trying to mess with him some more. With that thought in mind, Craig soon finds himself walking down the hall with a new sense of determination. If Eric thought that he was going to continue to push Craig around, he had another thing coming.

However, when Craig arrives at the said location, no one is there. He looks around and stops in front of the basement's door, rereading the note again. He wonders when the note was stuck on to his door, because it didn't have a specified time written down on it. He figures that maybe he already missed who ever it was that had written the note and decides to leave. There was no point in wasting his time standing there, thinking that it was probably just Eric messing with him anyways.

As he turns to walk away, the door behind him swings open fast, and all of the sudden he can feel a bunch of hands grab onto him and pull him backwards through the doorway. He's about to scream when a hand covers his mouth and another swiftly goes to covers his eyes. He tries to break free of their grasp as they carry him down somewhere.

"Shhh," a voice says in a hushed tone, trying to quiet him down.

He hears another couple of voices giggle and then the sound of something opening. And before Craig has anytime to processes what is fully going on, he's being thrown into darkness. He stands up and quickly turns around, only to be met with a door slamming in his face and the room being shrouded in darkness.

"Freaks like you deserve to be left down here!" a voice shouts from the other side, followed by a few other ones that laugh.

Craig hears what sounds like a bunch of footsteps running up what he thinks are stairs and a door slamming shut. He feels around until he comes into contact with the metal-steely surface of the door that shut in his face. He tries to open it, but it won't budge no matter how hard he pushes or pulls on it. There was something keeping it shut.

"Let me out!" he pounds on the door.

He began to panic. He didn't know who they were, that threw him in here. And he didn't know what he did to them in order for this to happen. But even more so, what unnerved him the most about all this was, even when he tried to get away, they all just laughed and found it amusing to throw him down here and trap him.

"Let me out! Please! Let me out!" he continued pleading, while still banging on the door.

The darkness behind him had started to form an almost threatening feeling in his mind, one that promised to swallow him whole and never let him see the light of day again.

"Anybody!" he yelled, his voice on the verge of cracking, "Let me out! Please!"

A quick glimpse of someone rushes through his mind. Someone who he wanted to see in that moment so much. So when the door that was trapping him in that dark place swings open fast to reveal that said person. He almost couldn't help but feel a wave of relief wash over him because of it.

"Craig..." Kenny says quietly.

A part of Craig wanted to smile at seeing the blond stand before for him, but just as soon as he thinks it, the thought is pushed away. He's suddenly reminded of the choice he made, and the tears that were now currently running down his face. He didn't want the other to see him like this, he didn't want the other to be involved in this or have the same thing done to him because of it. So he quickly gets up and walks past him.

"Hey- wait!" Kenny shouts and grabs Craig's wrist, "What happened? Why were you-"

He couldn't tell him.

"It's nothing," Craig replies.

"Nothing?" Kenny looks at him in disbelief, "You were trapped down here! Why were you trapped down-"

He can't.

"Look it's none of your business!" Craig cuts him off sharply, "So just..." he yanks his wrist free of Kenny's hold on it, "Stay out of it!"

With that, Craig runs up the stairs and leaves. His footsteps echoing in the empty halls as they carry him away, never once looking back, too guilt ridden to do so. All he could do was silently keep apologizing to Kenny in his head. And tell himself that this was for the best, that this was the right choice.

The following day, he found himself walking up to Eric outside on the courtyard.

"Alright Eric," Craig says irritated as he approaches him,"You've had your fun, so call off your lackey's or whatever."

Eric turns around to face him and grins slightly, "Why Craig, I have no idea what you mean."

"You know exactly what I mean! The ones that grabbed and threw me in the basement last night!" Craig exclaims at him, "You were probably there too," he grits his teeth.

Eric arches a brow at him, "I have no idea what you're talking about. But it sounds amusing, I do wish I had been there to see it. It probably would've been very funny," he laughs, which earns a glare from Craig, "hey I told you, all you would've needed to do was everything I said and this could've all been avoided you know."

"Like the hell I would," Craig bites back.

"Well maybe you should of thought things out more clearly, before you decided to have a nighttime gay romance going on," Eric says with a smirk, "can you not control your urges or something Craig? Jeez. I bet you two probably lie next to each other all night, laughing and giggling. Which is pretty gay man."

"Shut up," Craig says, his tone a warning one.

"Man, I bet you two do all kinds of perverted things to each other," Eric laughs, "maybe I should..." he pauses an amused look on his face, "tell everyone who you're being so gay with. So that way you two will be well known around here as the faggotity-duo."

"Leave him out of this," Craig seethes.

"Oh ho, what's this? I hit a nerve there did I?" Eric says bemused, "Wow, you really are gay for him. Well then, in that case... how can I resist telling everyone?" he smiles, "Hey everybody!" he suddenly yells, and something in the pit of Craig's stomach drops, "You'll never guess what! Craig is-"

Eric doesn't get the chance to finish his sentence, because the next thing he knows, Craig's fist is suddenly being met with his face and he's falling to the ground. Craig jumps on top of him then and screams, punching him in the face repeatedly.

"You can't ever just-" Craig raises a fist back and glares down at Eric, whose expression is nothing but stunned, "shut the hell up can you?!" Craig shouts at him and brings his fist down again.

Others that are in the courtyard begin to gather around them and start to chant.

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" all in unison with one another.

Craig continues punching Eric, refusing to let him do anything more. Refusing to let him speak and possibly drag Kenny in to this as well. He would've most likely beaten Eric to death if it weren't for one of the nuns coming along to stop him from doing so.

For the next year and a half, Craig was constantly picked on and bullied. He had got everything from tacks being put in his shoes and on his seat, notes being stuck on to his door, his hat being thrown in to a tree, being pushed and shoved and many other things along those lines.

For the most part, he could endure it all. He didn't want to show them that they were winning, so he did his best not to let it show, not to let anything show. Although it was still hard at times for him and it seemed like it wouldn't ever stop. But eventually it started to lighten up, as the bullies weren't getting the reaction that they had wanted out of him anymore. So he didn't feel the need to say anything about it. He had manged to hide most of it away pretty well. And keep it hidden, hidden from Kenny at least.

However there was one group of older boys that seemed to like picking on him the most. Almost like they had it out for him. And one day they took the bullying a step further, much further than what any of the other tactics had been before hand. This had ended up being one thing that he couldn't keep hidden from the other.

As Craig finishes washing off his hands in the washroom, the door to it swings open and the group of older boys walk in. When Craig sees the group he decides that it's best to leave then. He turns off the tap and grabs a paper towel to dry his hands with.

"Aw man!" one of them says as they enter the washroom.

"I know right?" another says replying to them.

Craig tosses the paper towel out and starts to head for the door. When he goes to walk past them though, they step in front of him and block his path.

"Hey Craig," the leader of the group says.

Craig doesn't reply though and tries to go around them, but it doesn't work.

"Hey it's rude to ignore somebody when they talk to you," the leader says.

"Please move," Craig says flatly and tries to go around them again.

But the leader grabs onto his arm as he does, "Whoa, not so fast there. We know that you like to have fun with other guys, so we thought, why don't we all have some fun?"

Before Craig has the chance to say anything, he's being shoved down onto the floor, the back of his head making contact with it. When he goes to get up, the leader of the group sits down on top of him, straddling him and holding him in place.

"Get off of me!" Craig yells, struggling to get the bigger boy off of him.

"But we're just getting started," he smirks, "guys hold him down for me," he orders and moves his hands away.

The others quickly grab a hold of Craig and keep him pinned down. The one on top of Craig readjusts himself into another position, moving lower down to sit on Craig's legs. He then moves his hands down to Craig's waist and starts unzipping his pants.

"No!", Craig screams, struggling with all he can to get out of their hold on him, "Stop! Let me go! Don't-"

"Shhhh," the leader says, "It will all be okay," he pulls down Craig's pants and underwear, completely exposing him for all to see. Then he reaches a hand into his sweater pocket and grins eerily, "We're going to fix you."

With that the leader takes out a sharp pointy object from his pocket. A knife. One that they seemed to have taken possibly from the kitchen or something. Upon seeing the sharp object, an overwhelming sense of fear fills Craig.

"L-Let me go! Don't touch me! Get off of m-" Craig screams, but his mouth is covered by one of the others holding him down in place.

The leader sighs and looks at the one covering Craig's mouth, "Thanks, he was starting to getting annoying," then he looks back down at Craig, "you should be grateful to us Craig. We're going to make you right again. We've heard all the stories and rumors about how you are, how you had a little sleeping buddy with you before," a look of disgust crosses over his face, "I bet you both did really perverted things to each other all the time," he slowly places the tip of the blade under Craig's flaccid member and flips it backwards on to his stomach. "I bet you really like being touched down here and stuff, don't you?" he then moves the blade down, so that it's now resting at the top of his testicles, "But don't you know that doing that kind of thing with another guy is against the teachings we've learned? You shouldn't be doing such sinful things Craig. But it's fine, we'll fix you so that you won't have these sorts of urges anymore and can be forgiven," he grins again, "with time anyways."

And with that, he slowly begins to press the sharp blade into Craig's flesh. The only thing that Craig can do is scream into the hand that is covering his mouth. The fear coursing through his veins making him much to terrified to move in case the blade cuts into him faster. Craig braces himself for the inevitable excruciating pain that he will surly feel from the knife cutting in to and severing him. However the door to the washroom opens.

"Hey," a voice calls from behind them. Everybody stops in place and turns to look at the source of it, "What's going on here?"

It takes a second for it to fully register that Craig knows this voice. And when he glances over at the door through now blurred vision, he sees a familiar short blond boy standing by it.

Kenny.

"Heh, none of your business," the leader says.

Kenny is silent for a moment, as if thinking something over in his head before he speaks again, "Well, whatever you're doing or are _about_ to... you should stop it now."

"And why's that?" the leader sneers.

"Because, I heard screaming and called one of the sisters to come here and check it out. They're on their way now, they just needed to go and get father Joseph real quick. I was just curious and came a head in here investigate," Kenny replies slowly, as if choosing his words carefully.

The leader of the group makes an irritated sound at that, "Fine, whatever," he looks at the others, "let's go guys, we don't need the nuns and annoying father Joseph coming after our throats today."

He gets up off of Craig and puts the knife back into his pocket. The others in the small group also let go of Craig and as soon as they do, Craig rolls into a ball on his side. The group chuckles at that before they all make their way to the door past Kenny.

"Man," one of them complains, "just when the real fun part was about to begin."

It takes everything Kenny has, to not throw his clenched fists at them. Instead only offering a glare at them as they leave the washroom. When the door closes shut, he looks back over at Craig. He notices him readjusting himself, from what he gathers is fixing his pants. He takes a careful step towards him.

"Craig...?" he asks quietly.

Kenny continues to walk over to the other cautiously until he's next to him. He looks down at Craig, who's back is facing towards him and kneels down beside him.

"Are you okay?" he asks concerned.

He reaches out a hand lightly and touches Craig's shoulder, the tips of his fingers just barely grazing Craig's, who's arms were holding himself. The moment that Kenny's fingers touch Craig's, his head whirls around fast, a terrified expression on his face. Eyes wide and tear filled. Kenny thinks of moving away from him because of that, however he decides against it.

"Kenny..." Craig says in a quiet, almost trembling voice.

Kenny looks at Craig for a few moments, not knowing how to react. But he soon finds his hand gradually moving closer to Craig's face. It stops for a brief second though, hesitating near his face. As if Kenny is debating on whether he should let it touch him or not. But when his hand very gently presses onto Craig's cheek, his choice is made.

He sees Craig trembling, the fear and terror of what had almost happened to him making it's way to the surface and becoming visible. Kenny lightly wipes a tear away on Craig's cheek. And that's all it takes. That one simple gesture of kindness out of the pool of cruelty Craig had endured up until that point. Was all it took for Craig to end up letting his facade of keeping Kenny away at all costs slip, and he finds himself leaning over and suddenly wrapping his arms around the other. The action catching Kenny himself off guard, having not expected that. But he regains himself and wraps his arms around Craig in response. As Craig sobs and cries into Kenny's chest, the blond just silently sits there and pats his head.

"Craig..." Kenny eventually says after some seconds.

And as if a switch had gone off, Craig suddenly comes back to reality and shoves Kenny away.

"No- I can't!" he shouts at him.

"You can't what?" Kenny asks very confused.

"I can't be around you!"

"Why?"

"I-I just can't! So leave me alone!" Craig yells and stands up,turning to leave.

"Wait!" Kenny exclaims, grabbing hold of Craig's wrist.

"Let me go!" Craig yells and tries to free his wrist.

"No!" Kenny yells back, "I don't understand why you're acting like this! Just tell me what's wrong!"

"I could've handled it myself!" Craig says and turns to look at Kenny, "I didn't need your help!"

Kenny's expression changes from one of worry and concern to one of anger and confusion in a split second.

"Oh yeah- because it seemed like you were handling it really well just now!" Kenny yells back.

"Let me go!" Craig yells, and tries to pull his arm again. But Kenny doesn't lessen his grip and only stares him down. Craig turns his head away from the harsh stare and stops moving. Dead silence sets in and everything stands still. The ringing of the silence growing louder until he whispers out, "Please..." in a very small and shaky voice.

Kenny stares for a few more seconds before his grip reluctantly lessens on Craig. His hand sliding down the other's wrist to the hand. Just as Craig's hand is about to fully leave his grasp, he gently squeezes Craig's pinky between his thumb and index finger, as if a last effort of hopelessly not wanting to let him go. But he does, and Craig's hand falls from his grasp, away and no longer in his reach.

Kenny stood there, very hurt and confused. But he was also so very unaware of Craig feeling the same way. Kenny had no idea just how much Craig had wanted to stay there with him and just continue to cry and hold on to him. He had no idea of how much he wanted to say sorry and apologize to him for acting this way or saying such horrible things to him. He had no idea just how much Craig had really missed him, but was afraid. Afraid of these same things happening to Kenny, afraid of the bullies, afraid of all the downcast stares at him and afraid of himself.

But for Craig, he had no idea of the underlying truth that the mask of fear hid from him.

 **…**

Craig finishes explaining what had happened to Kenny, his gaze still fixated off to the side somewhere. Kenny just looks at him with widen eyes, not really knowing what to say, still trying to process everything he was just told. But things had started to make a lot more sense to him now.

"After that happened, the bullying died down a lot for the next year," Craig says offhandedly, "that group never bothered me anymore either for some reason."

"I know..." Kenny says in a low tone, causing Craig to look over at him, "I made sure of that."

"How?"

"I just did." is all Kenny replies with.

Craig looks at him confused, expecting Kenny to elaborate more, but he doesn't. And something in Kenny's now darkened expression made him too afraid to ask about it more. Kenny's expression softens though when he sees Craig looking at him nervously.

"He never said anything about you to me," Kenny sighs out and Craig gives him a now questioningly look, "Eric," he adds, "he never once talked about, or mentioned you around me, Stan or Kyle," he shakes his head annoyed. "He probably knew that we wouldn't want to hang around him, if we knew he did such a shitty thing to somebody. And he probably knew, that I would kick his ass too if I had found out he was the one who started it all," he feels a ting of anger starting to rise in him but manages to keep it down. "Craig," he says calmly, "Can you please stop pushing me away now?"

Craig looks down, "I'm not..." he trails off.

"The whole time we've been in here, you've been ignoring me. Telling me to stay away from you, still trying to push me away. You're letting those bullies win, even now when they're not around anymore. They hold no power over you, you don't need to be afraid any longer. So please... stop letting others get between us."

There's a look that emerges onto Craig face then. Kenny isn't quite able to pin on exactly what it is but from what he sees, it looks like a mix of sadness, guilt and realization.

"I'm sorry," Craig suddenly says, "I really am," he looks back up at Kenny, "I'm so sorry Kenny! I won't push you away anymore!" tears were now threatening at the corners of his eyes.

He began to apologize to Kenny profusely. Knowing that what Kenny had said to him was so very true. The bullies were no longer around any more, they held no power over him here. It was only him and Kenny now. They were the only two individuals contained in this small room. He had kept on letting all the awful things that had happened to him back at the orphanage, create a wedge between him and the other because he was still afraid of them. But it wasn't until he heard Kenny's words just now, that he really started to realize just how true they were. He didn't need to be afraid of them anymore and he didn't need to keep on pushing Kenny away. The mental grasp they had on him, now breaking away.

"It's okay," Kenny says smiling at him, and stopping his long string of apologies.

Craig goes silent and offers a weak smile in return to Kenny's. It doesn't last long though as he hunches forward quickly, and starts to cough again. Kenny reaches out a hand and places it onto Craig's head. Craig glances at him and sees him continuing to smile gently at him, causing Craig to avert his gaze once again.

"Thank you," Craig mumbles.

"For what?"

"For being my friend and... everything."

Kenny laughs softly to himself, "How are you feeling?"

"...I'm okay now, I think," Craig replies.

Kenny doesn't quite believe that but he removes his hand away from Craig's head regardless, "Alright then, let's get some-" before he can finish his sentence, Craig quickly grabs his wrist and looks at him, "What's wrong?" he asks confused.

Craig continues looking at Kenny for a bit longer before he let's go of his wrist, "Sorry..."

"It's fine," Kenny says, and moves away to lie down, "why don't we get some rest?"

Craig nods and they both lie down near one another.

"Goodnight," Kenny smiles at him.

There's another pause as Craig hesitantly speaks up, "Um..."

Kenny looks at him, "What is it?"

Craig doesn't reply right away, stopping to think about something, "Nothing," he eventually says.

"Are you sure?" Kenny asks curiously.

Craig's gaze is averted again as he nods, and Kenny can't help but wonder what he was going to say. An image of the past flows through Kenny's mind of how they used to sleep right next to one another before and he finds himself asking jokingly.

"You want to sleep right next to me or something?"

He chuckles to himself but when he looks at Craig, he sees that the other boy is now staring directly back at him. Kenny's eyes slightly widen as he realizes that may be what the other boy wants.

"A-Ah, well... I mean- I don't mind, if you want to..." Kenny stammers out.

Craig looks to the side as if thinking something over and then looks back at Kenny quickly.

"Would that be okay?" he asks and Kenny nods his head.

Craig sits up a bit and moves over to lie right next to Kenny. The sudden closeness of the other, causes a strange tight feeling in Kenny's chest. He had known that they just made up and all, but he wasn't expecting such a quick change from Craig. The other even said he was scared to be near him a short while ago and now this. He couldn't help but question the sudden change a bit.

Just then, Kenny feels something tug on his shirt. When he looks down as to why, he sees Craig is gripping on to it. For some reason the thought that maybe Craig feels alone runs through his mind and maybe that was the reason why. His thoughts get interrupted when Craig starts coughing again.

"Craig?" Kenny asks concerned.

"My chest hurts..." Craig manages out.

His grip on Kenny's shirt tightens more as he continues to cough into the blond's chest. Kenny then wraps an arm carefully around him. Eventually he starts to calm down, his head turned to the side now, resting against Kenny's chest. He finds that he's able to faintly hear the beating of Kenny's heart, next to his ear. It's a bit fast, and he looks up at Kenny.

"Kenny?" Craig asks.

"It's alright," Kenny says smiling down at him, "I'm here for you, everything is going to be okay," he knew that things weren't with where they were, but he didn't want the other to worry anymore for the day. "This kind of reminds me of how we used to sleep next to each other before," he chuckles a bit.

"Yeah..." Craig agrees and looks back down at Kenny's chest, "night Kenny."

"Night Craig," Kenny smiles one more time before shutting his eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

Kenny sits leaning his head against the wall, alone in the small room. Thoughts wandering as he tries to think of just how much time has gone by so far since being brought to this awful place. But he can't come to figure it out, because after awhile all of the days just started to mush together for him. All of them feeling the same, getting taken away to be experimented on and then being left in this room. But from what he could observe, was that they only seemed to do the experiments on him and Craig every three to four days.

As for Craig, he had currently gotten taken away for experimenting. And all that Kenny could do was hope and pray that he would be okay. There was nothing else besides that he could do, just sit there and wait. Hoping that he is brought back like always. Still, that didn't stop the thought at the back of his mind from occasionally popping up and worrying him that Craig might not come back one day. Kenny pushes that thought away, his hands clenching into unconscious fists, trying not to think about it.

 **…**

Meanwhile, elsewhere in another room with a few group of masked people in it, Craig sits strapped to a metal chair. While off to the side behind a big long reflective window, stands a small group of people wearing white lab coats and holding clipboards in their hands as they observe and write down things onto them.

"The subject is now fastened properly in place," a man holding one of the clipboards says.

"Begin injecting the serum directly in to the back of the subject's neck ," a woman wearing long thin rectangle glasses orders.

The man then turns to a desk with an assortment of buttons on it, and pushes down on one of them. Giving out the order into the other room, his voice echoing out of the speakers.

One of the masked figures goes to a metal stand and picks up a small but very long thin needle with an open end on it. They attach a thin tube to the end of it and move over to the back of where Craig is seated. He looks at them wearily, knowing what was coming next.

The one holding the needle takes their free hand and feels around the back of Craig's neck for a small space that rests between the neck and bottom of the head. They then bring the needle to his skin when they find the exact spot they were looking for. If Craig could, he would try and move away, but he couldn't. His head was held firmly in place by slim metal bars the extended from the steely chair and wrapped around his head. As the needle breaks his skin and begins making it's way deeper into his body, he let's out a pained muffled scream into the belt that was forcefully covering his mouth. With every inch deeper the thin needle gets, the louder his muffled screams became. It had felt like something was drilling a small hole into the back of his head. The needle keeps on going until it finally reaches it's mark.

"Injecting now," the needle holder says.

The small tube attached to the needle then begins to fill up with a blue liquid. Making it's way from the tube and through the needle until eventually entertaining Craig's body.

"Sensors show the serum spreading fast in the target area of the subject," the man with the clipboard says.

"Increase the dosage. I have a feeling about this one," the woman says.

The man with the clipboard once again presses down on the button to give the order. And the masked ones increase it. Suddenly everything goes bright for Craig. As a very warm, bright light, starts to fill up his eyes and vision. At first he thinks it's just the harsh light above him blaring down but, the light gradually grows more and more warm in his eyes, until an intense hot burning sensation takes over and his vision is completely blinded by the light. He feels something quickly flicking in and around the edges of his sockets. Like that of something trying to find a signal but not quite reaching it.

"That's..." the man trails off.

"I knew it," the woman says, a small smile making it's way across her lips. She goes over and pushes the button herself this time, "Keep up the dosage. Let's see how far this can go."

 **…**

Sometime later, the door to the small room is opened again with yet another bang as Craig is brought back to it. His unsteady self being shoved into it, before the door slams shut behind him. Craig falls to his hands and knees and starts coughing harshly.

"Craig!" Kenny shouts and rushes over to him.

Craig continues coughing for quite sometime before it starts to die down.

"I..." Craig strains, trying to speak, "I don't think that... I can take much more of this. I just want it to stop," he looks up at Kenny, "I just want it to end already!" he cries and begins to start coughing again.

A sad expression crosses Kenny's face, and he carefully wraps his arms around the other, "I know, but you need to be strong. We'll figure out a way to get out of here."

"How?" Craig sobs.

"I don't know, but we will somehow," Kenny replies.

Even though Kenny knew that the chances of them getting out of that place were pretty much nonexistent, he still wanted to give the other boy some sort of reassurance to keep him holding on. And the thought of the other possible never coming back one day scared him. As Kenny continued to hold the other's sobbing and shaking body, his arm ends up pressing against the back of Craig's neck, causing Craig to wince and let out a pained sound.

"What's wrong?" Kenny asks concerned.

"It's my neck... it's sore from the experiment they did on me today," Craig says quietly.

"What did they do to you?"

"They... stuck a long thin needle in it," Craig replies.

"...Can I see it?" Kenny asks letting go of him.

Craig doesn't say anything, but turns so that the other can see it. Kenny carefully moves some of the longer strands of Craig's hair out of the way to get a better look, and there on the back of his neck, was a small black-bluish looking bruise. Kenny grimaces at the sight of it.

"They injected a lot of that blue liquid in to me this time," Craig says before another coughing fit is brought on.

Kenny grabs a hold of his shoulders to steady him, "H-Hey are you-"

"I'm fine," Craig coughs out.

Although the very notable coughing says anything thing but fine to Kenny. He brings up a hand to Craig's forehead and places it there. The moment it touches his skin, he can feel how warm Craig is, and how fast he's burning up.

"You have a fever..." Kenny says.

"No, I'm fine," Craig coughs again, this time much more weakly, "I'm..." he trails off and suddenly falls over onto his side.

"Craig!" Kenny exclaims and turns the other onto his back.

A quick rush of fear spreads through him, but he calms down when he notices that the other boy is still breathing and tells himself that he must have passed out. He places a hand back on Craig's forehead checking his temperature once more, and noting just how warm Craig was. He also notices the cold sweat breaking out and rather labored breathing coming from him.

Not knowing what else he can do besides maybe just keeping Craig warm, he lies down next to him and wraps his arms around him. He holds the other's shaking and shivering body close to his own in an attempt to help calm it. Hoping that it helps in some way.

"Be strong Craig," Kenny whispers out, "be strong..."

Kenny closes his eyes and hopes that Craig will hang on and not give up on him.

When Kenny starts coming to, after having fallen asleep, there's something wet dripping onto his face. He opens his eyes and looks around, noticing that he's now lying on his back looking up at the ceiling. The room is pitch black, but he guesses that it's water dripping down on to his face or something. He feels around the area he's in, in search of the other boy who was beside him before he passed out. When he doesn't feel anything but the cold floor, he stands up to his feet and cautiously moves around the room in search of him.

"Craig?" Kenny calls out, straining to hear any sound of some sort in deafening ringing of the silence.

"Ken...ny," a very hoarse and very raspy voice calls out to him then, "hel...p.. me..."

He turns around when he realizes that the voice is coming from behind him. He can now faintly see a figure lying on the floor near the center of the small room, thanks to some faint moonlight shinning in through the small window.

"Craig?" Kenny says again, this time more hesitantly as he approaches the figure, "What's-"

He stops mid sentence, when the moonlight from outside shines in brighter. Fully realizing what it is that he's now seeing. There on the ground lie Craig, all bloody and stitched up. Missing a section of his skull and open wounds scattered all over him, showing muscle underneath the skin. His eyes black and hollow with thin streams of deep crimson pouring out from them and down his cheeks onto the floor beneath his body.

"Help...m..e.." Craig calls out to him before he starts to cough and blood sputters out of his mouth.

Kenny stands there in horror at the sight before him.

"Ke...nny..." Craig calls out his name again.

And Kenny quickly reaches out a hand as if to try and grab Craig, but as soon as he does, all of his fingers on that hand detach and sever. Then his wrist and elbow follow after. Each joint from his arm making it's way up and severing off of his body.

Craig shakily reaches up a hand and coughs, "hel..p..m.e.." once more in that hoarse raspy voice.

"Craig!" Kenny screams, desperately trying to reach him, to help, to be beside him, but can't for some unforeseen reason, " _Craig!_ " he shuts his tear filled eyes tightly, feeling helpless in this situation.

And when they shoot open again, he finds that's he's now lying back down in the room, and that's it's also daytime. He quickly sits up and looks over to his side. There fast asleep next to him, wasn't a bloody, stitched up, open wound, grisly looking body. It was Craig, just Craig, as how he usually looked instead.

Kenny stares at him for a few seconds before placing a hand gently onto his cheek. He let's out a sigh of relief when he realizes that he's fully awake now and that what he had seen was only a really bad dream. However he still couldn't feel fully relieved, because Craig's temperature still felt pretty warm to him. But it didn't seem to be as warm as it had felt before, at least he didn't think so. Craig's eyes open then and he glances up at him.

"Kenny?" he asks, his voice sounding a bit strained, "Is something wrong?" his eyes were struggling to stay open.

Kenny smiles at him, "It's nothing, just a bad dream is all," he figures that he must have woken the other up by sitting up so fast.

"Oh... what was it about?"

A quick image flashes through Kenny's mind recalling the dream he had and he shakes his head a bit, "It was about something that I don't want to see happen. Ever."

He didn't want to ever see Craig end up in such a horrible state like that in his life. He didn't want the experiments being conducted on them, to affect him in such a way. His resolve to get of this horrible place only growing more strong now after having had that dream. The only question being was, how?

Craig reaches a slightly shaky hand up to Kenny's face,"Kenny..." he smiles weakly at him, "my light in the darkness. My precious light," he quietly says.

Kenny's eyes widen, having been taken aback a bit by what was just said. Craig smiles faintly again before lowering his hand and drifting back off in to sleep. Kenny sits there in silence, not knowing what to do or how to react. He began growing aware of the slight burning sensation forming in his cheeks and for a brief moment thinks that he may have caught Craig's fever or something. Then he thinks to himself that maybe Craig had only said that because he had a fever, and was a bit out of it or something. When he sees Craig shiver a bit, he lies back down next to him and tries to keep him warm again, wrapping his arms around him.

This time however, choosing not to fall asleep.

When Craig finally comes to again, it's nearing evening and Kenny is sitting next to him, he glances down when he sees him awake.

"You're awake," he smiles.

"Yeah..." Craig says and sits up.

"How are you feeling?"

"Okay, I think..." Craig replies.

"That's good," Kenny smiles again, "you had me a bit worried there last night, when you passed out."

"I did?"

"Yeah, you had a really bad fever, but kept trying to tell me you were fine remember?"

"Not really," Craig says bringing a hand to his head and rubbing the side of it, "everything is kind of fuzzy from last night."

"I see..."

"Did anything else happen?"

"Huh?" Kenny says confused.

"When I passed out, did anything else happen?" Craig explains.

"Oh-uh, nope," Kenny quickly says, "you just passed out and I tried to keep you warm, hoping your fever would break."

"Oh..." Craig says, looking down.

Kenny noted the faint red his cheeks had, but wasn't sure if that was remnants of the fever or not. He also noted that his question from before had been most likely answered, as Craig having said what he said to him because of the fever he had. So he thought it best not to bring that up and keep it to himself.


	8. Chapter 8

Kenny's eyes struggle to stay open, as he fades in and out of consciousness. Only being able to pay attention to things here and there from the darkness that threatened his mind. Like a tug of war, that was pulling at his very existence. Something had not felt right to him, something was off, very off. But he wasn't sure just what it was. As he struggled to keep awareness around him, a string of images faded in and out of his mind.

"Interesting..." the silhouette of a woman had said looking down at him, as that same familiar blaring light shined down from behind her.

Then he was in a hallway, being dragged down it. Then in a small room with shower heads, then back in a hallway and then in front of a door. Kenny tries to piece together all that he's seeing, trying to sort out all of the images passing through his mind. As he becomes more aware, gradually coming back to reality, he's shoved into that very familiar room. He tries to land on his hands and knees but ends up falling all the way to the floor instead.

"Kenny!" he hears Craig's voice call out to him, although a bit foggy sounding, "You bastards! What the hell did you do to him?!"

When Kenny looks over, he sees Craig standing in front of one of the men. He then sees the man push Craig down, causing him to fall backwards in to a sitting position. As Kenny groggily sits up, he spots the man bring his leg back, and quickly realizes everything that's going on around him. He knows what the man is about to do when Craig braces himself, putting up his arms in front of his face in order to protect it from the impact that was coming. And the next thing Kenny knows, he's on his feet.

When the man swings his leg forward to kick Craig, it is instead met with the other boy's stomach. Blocking it from hitting Craig. When Craig doesn't feel any pain, he moves his arms away and looks up, seeing Kenny standing in front of him taking the full brunt of the kick.

"Kenny?!" Craig exclaims.

Kenny glares harshly at the man in front of him. Surpassing the severe pain passing throughout his abdomen, a feeling like something had opened, along with the pain of his head throbbing. All in favor of glaring at the man. The man almost flinches for a split second because of the look Kenny was giving him, before drawing back an arm and bringing it down to his face.

"What are you looking at?!" the man yells angrily at him, as Kenny falls to the floor again.

"Kenny!" Craig shouts again, and goes over to him.

The man let's out a annoyed sound, before turning and slamming the door shut as he leaves with the other one.

Craig leans over Kenny, examining him when he spots blood spreading on his shirt,"You're bleeding," he says worried.

"It's nothing," Kenny pants out and slowly sits up, "I'm good."

He carefully moves over to the wall and leans up against it, wincing a bit as he does so. Craig goes over and sits in front of him.

"...Let me see," Craig says, looking at Kenny's arm now resting over the blood on his stomach.

"I told you I'm-"

"Kenny," Craig says cutting him off, now looking directly at him, "you're not fine."

Kenny stares back at him, before letting out a sigh and laughing to himself, "You got me," he says giving in.

He moves his arm away, and let's Craig lift up his shirt to examine the wound. When Craig looks at it, he can see that some of the stitching that had been keeping the wound shut, was now loosened a bit, causing any blood that was sealed off to now flow out of it.

Craig grimaces, "You should've let me take the kick..."

"Sorry, I moved without thinking," Kenny says, and Craig looks back up at him, "what?"

"You're always doing this."

"Huh?" Kenny says confused.

Craig then moves his hands to the bottom of his own shirt, "Trying so hard to watch over me," he says as he starts ripping at it, "you should be watching over yourself more. Why do you try so hard for me?" he tears off a long piece of it and presses it gently to Kenny's wound.

"It's because... I want to protect you," Kenny states.

Craig's eyes widen,"Why? Why do you want to protect me so much?"

Kenny reaches a hand up and places it on Craig's head, " Because I care about you and... you mean a lot to me," Kenny says sincerely to him. And Craig quickly looks down at the wound, trying to hide his face from the other. Kenny smiles, "I can hold the cloth myself, you don't need to-"

"No," Craig interrupts him, "you're always helping me... this is the least I can do to help you out. So just let me," he glances up slightly at the other one, trying to look determined, his face flushing a bit though instead, " you mean a lot to me too."

A look of surprise crosses Kenny's face, as he was not expecting the other to say it back. But his face soon rests in to a smile as it sets in. Craig moves a hand away from the cloth and up to Kenny's face, and cautiously runs his thumb along his cheek.

"Does it hurt?" Craig asks, continuing to move his thumb over from what Kenny can guess are stitches there.

"A little."

"It looks painful."

"Does it really look that bad?" Kenny chuckles to himself, trying to lighten things up.

"Yeah..." Craig nods, "there are stitches running all along your face, from your jaw, to your mouth. And they shaved some of your hair away too, it looks like they did something to your head. There's a patch there that looks like it's been reattached," he explains to Kenny because he knows that he can't see it for himself.

"Oh, guess that explains the head pain..." Kenny says.

Craig falls silent, moving his hand away and looking over to the small window. It had been nighttime now, but it was clear out and he could see some of the stars in the sky, along with the moon.

"Do you remember that one night, when we went to go stargazing for the first time?" Craig asks.

"Yeah," Kenny replies, "how could I forget..." he smiles to himself fondly as the memory from years ago, starts to come back and play out in his mind again.

 **…**

A very young Craig lie asleep in bed, but stirs to the sound of his bedroom door creaking open. When he starts to realize what that sound usually means, he quickly sits up in his bed and looks at the door.

"Kenny?!" Craig asks excitedly.

"Shhh," the other boy says, placing his index finger in front of his mouth.

"Why are you wearing your coat and stuff?" Craig asks confused, taking note of Kenny's appearance.

Kenny grins at him, "Get changed, I wanna show you something," is all he offers and the other boy looks at him still confused. "Hurry!" Kenny urges and he steps back outside of the door.

When Craig finishes tossing on his outdoor clothes, he walks outside of his room to met up with Kenny.

"Where are we going?" Craig asks as he adjusts his hat a bit more.

"You'll see," Kenny smiles, "come on!" he says and rushes forward. He only gets a few feet before looking back and seeing Craig standing by the door still, looking uncertain. "What's wrong?"

"We're going to get in to trouble..." he mumbles quietly.

"It will be okay," Kenny says and walks back towards him, "trust me," and he reaches out a hand towards him. Craig looks down at his hand for a few moments, still unsure but then slowly raises his own hand and places it into Kenny's. Kenny smiles at him then, "Come on!"

And with that, Kenny leads Craig down various hallways until they come across a staircase leading up.

"Up here," Kenny instructs, pointing up the staircase.

"What's up there?" Craig asks with uncertainty.

"The roof," Kenny says as he starts making his way up them.

"W-Why are we going to the roof?" Craig asks confused.

"You'll see," Kenny replies with and tugs on Craig's arm, ushering him to follow. As they reach the top Kenny speaks up again, "Sometimes they leave the door here unlocked," he adds as he places his hand onto the doorknob, "and I made sure it was unlocked before I went to get you," with that, he turns the knob and opens the door. He looks back at Craig with a smile, the light from the moonlight shinning in from behind him, creating a halo effect around his head because of it, "Come on!"

Craig's eyes widen a bit, as if seeing something surprising for the first time, before following the other out onto the roof. When they walk out onto it, Craig looks around.

"We're here, but what did you want to show me?" he asks looking back at Kenny.

Kenny points up to the sky, "Look up," he tells him.

Craig does, and he sees there in the sky, are the stars and a very big moon. They are clear on this night, unlike most others where it was usually very cloudy.

"Whoaaa," Craig says in awe, "the moon is so big! And the stars are so pretty!"

"I know you can see some of them from your room... but I thought that, you might wanna come outside and see them all for once," Kenny says sheepishly, "I know how much you like stars and stuff, so..."

Craig's face flushes a bit, never having had someone do something so nice for him before, "T-Thanks."

"Anytime!" Kenny quickly says, then notices something in the sky, "Oh, look at that!" he tells Craig, who looks back up. His eyes widening as he sees the sky begin to light up with small thin fiery streaks, "Well this is a nice surprise. Wasn't expecting to see a, what is it called again..."

"Meteor shower," Craig says.

"Yeah that!" Kenny laughs and looks at him. He notices the very wide smile spread across Craig's face in amazement at the sight before him, "You like it up here?" Kenny asks.

Craig looks back over at him, "Yeah!" he smiles.

It catches Kenny off guard a bit, as he's never seen a smile like that on Craig's face before be directed at him.

"I can- um, bring you here again if you want," Kenny offers him.

"Really?!" Craig exclaims, and Kenny nods, "Thanks for bringing me here Kenny," he smiles.

"No problem," Kenny says returning the smile.

His hand holds on a bit tighter to Craig's as the two of them stand there and watch the sky. Not caring at all how cold it may be, too happy to.

 **…**

Kenny smiles to himself when he finishes recalling the memory. Remembering how it was also the first time he had ever seen Craig be so happy before like that.

"You think..." Craig says, and Kenny looks at him, "that we'll ever see something like that again?"

Kenny smiles at him, "I'm sure that we will."

He shifts a bit against the wall, trying to find a more comfortable position and winces, letting out a small pained sound.

"Kenny?" Craig asks worried.

"Sorry, I just need to rest for a little bit... I'm kind of tired," Kenny explains and Craig nods, not saying anything more.

Kenny closes his eyes to rest when he feels something warm on his hand. When he opens his eyes to look, he sees Craig's hand placed on top of his, holding it. He also sees that Craig is now sitting next to him, leaning against the wall with his knees in front of his chest and his other arm wrapped around them. Kenny smiles faintly to himself before closing his eyes again.


	9. Chapter 9

Quite a bit of time goes by, and the wounds to Kenny's face and head are now fully healed up. He sits in the room waiting. The door opens and he catches a quick glimpse of Craig being shoved in before it shuts behind him. However Kenny notices something is off about the other boy. It takes a moment for his eyes to readjust to the darkness taking over the room again but when they do, he realizes that Craig isn't wearing any clothes. As Craig sits himself down onto the floor, Kenny approaches him.

"Craig? Are you okay?" he asks, but Craig stays quiet, "...Where are your clothes?" a sense of unease was starting to form in him.

"I hate this place..." Craig finally says, bringing his keens up to his chest.

As Kenny gets closer to Craig, kneeling down in front of him, he notices there's blood on his mouth and bruises on his face and arms. Suddenly something was sinking in the pit of his gut.

"Craig- what happened?!" Kenny asks urgently, "They didn't hurt you did they?! They-"

"No more than usual," Craig interrupts, "they took me for experimenting, then to the disinfectant showers, but I refused to go in today. So they forced me to take it and didn't give me another pair of clothes to wear when I got out. They told me I could sleep in the cold, for not behaving like I was told to till they had to come and get me again," he spits out the last bit with some anger.

"I see... that's all that happened? They didn't do anything else to you did they?" Kenny asks carefully.

"No," Craig looks up at him, "like what?"

Kenny let's out a sigh of relief, "Nevermind."

When the sinking feeling of unease subsides in Kenny, it's only then does he notice the water droplets dripping from the ends of Craig's hair. He also notices the other shiver a bit, as he tries to keep himself warm in the cool room. With that, Kenny begins removing his shirt.

Craig's eyes widen, "W-What are you doing?!"

"Here," Kenny extends a hand forward with the shirt wrapped up in it, "so you're not cold."

Craig looks at it then reaches a hand forward, "...Thanks."

"No problem," Kenny smiles and sits down next to him, "and don't give up, we'll get out of here."

As Craig finishes putting the shirt on, he looks over at Kenny. Noticing all the scars and stitches that now cover various parts of his torso.

"And if we don't? Then what? What will happen to us?" Craig asks, pulling his knees back in front of him.

"We will."

"How do you-"

"I'll make sure it happens."

There's so much conviction in Kenny's voice when he says it, that Craig falls silent and doesn't debate it anymore. Wanting and choosing to believe in those words.

"I'm afraid," Craig says quietly, "really, really, afraid."

Kenny offers a sad smile, "I know..."

He hunches forward, leaning his forearms onto his knees as he thinks over on how to get out of this place, for what feels like the millionth time. But of course he wasn't sure how. There hadn't been an opening for him to do something yet, so all he could do was wait and bind for time. But the longer they waited, the more terrible things would be done to them, and he didn't like seeing Craig suffer this way. He thought that maybe, even if there was an opportunity for at least Craig to get away, he'd want that.

His thoughts stop when he feels something on his back. When he looks over at what it is, he sees it's Craig's hand touching along some of the stitching and scars on it, his expression showing concern. Kenny doesn't say anything though and instead looks forward again, leaving Craig to explore the various engraved marks on the surface of his skin.

"What happened to your arm?" Craig asks spotting stitching going all the way around the top of Kenny's arm.

When Kenny realizes what he's asking about, and that his shirt was no longer hiding it, he quickly covers it with his hand, "It's nothing."

"It looks like it was cut off!"

"Don't worry about it."

"The-" an annoyed expression crosses over Craig's face, "fuck I won't!" he yells and Kenny looks at him in surprise, "Every time they take you through that door, I'm worried that you might never come back! And lately you don't tell me if something is wrong with you, or what they do to you! I know that you're trying to protect me and make sure I don't worry, but I do! I worry that one day, one of their experiments will end up going too far and kill you!"

Kenny stares at Craig stunned, wondering just how long he had been keeping all of that bottled up in him. A few seconds pass by and it starts to set in that Craig had been just as worried about him as he was for him, his gaze drops. It was true that Kenny had indeed been keeping what kind of experiments they were doing to him more of a secret now, unlike around when they were first in the room and he told Craig pretty much all they did to him. But it was different now, because he had realized something and he really didn't want to worry Craig about it. Although he had wondered if it was fair to leave him out in the dark like this.

"That won't happen..." Kenny says quietly.

Craig looks at him, "How do you-"

"It won't ever happen," Kenny repeats, " it can't because..." he trails off, really debating on if this was actually a good idea or not. Knowing how this would probably sound.

"Because what?" Craig asks, wanting him to explain.

"Because I..."

"What? What is it?" Craig asks as another long pause sets in, "Just tell me."

"I..." Kenny pauses one more time before looking back up at Craig and saying his next words cautiously, "I can't die."

"...What?" Craig looks at him confused.

"At least I don't think I can," Kenny adds, "I know that seems like a really unrealistic thing to say but," he moves his hand away from his arm, revealing the stitching around it again. "These scars and stitches are not just from them cutting in to my flesh. It's also from them taking out some of my organs and cutting off, then reattaching my limbs. Because I'm able to regenerate and regrow them at a steadily fast rate over time. And... they've already killed me, twice so far and I came back. So you don't need to ever worry about that happening," he finishes explaining.

For a minute or two, Craig just stares at Kenny, not really knowing what to say, "Y-You're kidding right?" he eventually says in disbelief, "Coming back from the dead... that's impossible, they didn't actually kill you right? You're just messing with me, right?"

"I didn't want to tell you because I wasn't sure how you'd take something like this but... I feel like this is something important you should know about, and that it might not be fair for me to keep on hiding it from you anymore," Kenny tells him.

Craig continues to look at him confused, "I don't know what, or _how_ , to even react to what you just told me. I mean it sounds really out there after all, but..." he glances back down at Kenny's back, then at his arm, "I feel like, you're not lying about this. So I'm going to believe you," Kenny smiles at him and Craig pauses, as if thinking back on something, "actually, maybe it's not that crazy..."

"What do you mean?" Kenny asks.

"I've... kind of, had something similar happen to me too," Craig mumbles.

"Really?" Kenny says surprised.

"Yeah, but it wasn't dying and coming back. Instead it was..."

"It was what?" Kenny urges him on.

"It was like... a warm light of some sort coming out of my eyes. Kind of like... sparks almost," Craig replies, seeming unsure of even believing his own words.

"Sparks?"

"Yeah. Sometimes when they experiment on me, this strange, warm, electric-like feeling fills my eyes and sparks start to come out of them," Craig explains and he pulls his knees closer to himself, "It makes all the hairs on my body stand on end."

"Can you control them?"

"No," Craig shakes his head, "I have no idea how to. If I did, I would use them to help get us out of here," there's a brief pause, "I still remember when it first happened, I was so scared. I thought that my eyes were melting or something, the feeling was so intense."

"I would've been scared too, if that had happened to me also," Kenny says.

"...How did you feel?" Craig asks and Kenny arches an eyebrow at him, "When you came back for the first time?" he adds.

"Oh, um, out of it I guess. Like I didn't know what was going on around me," Kenny replies, "It happened the same day I came back here with the stitches along my face and on my head I think."

"It happened that time?" Craig asks, his eyes widening.

Kenny nods, "Yeah, it was before I came back here and all I remember was just a bunch of blurry-like images passing in and out of my vision. The second time it happened though, I was more aware. I remember being in a different room with machines everywhere. And I remember them cutting in to my skin, and my arm being severed. I also remember blood, a lot of it. After that I remember darkness, and then a sharp pain and light. When I looked over, I saw that my arm was sewn back on and there were people standing around me in a circle and..." he trails off.

"And?"

"There was this woman..."

"Woman?"

"Yeah, she said I was a very interesting find and told the others there to keep a close watch on me, then left. It's strange but, I think I've seen her before too, but I'm not sure when."

"How did they know you'd come back again...?" Craig asks a bit hesitantly.

"They didn't, I don't think."

"Huh?!"

"They took a gamble from how fast I was regenerating and tested it out I think," Kenny says, "Guess they figured if my wounds, organs and limbs were all regenerating fast like that, then maybe I'd be able to heal a deadly wound to my body as well or something. And from what I've also seen so far about this regenerative thing is that, if any limb or organ is reattached within a certain time limit, it will fully heal back on to my body."

"...Really?"

Kenny nods, "So far it seems that way..." Craig frowns at that and Kenny smiles a bit at him, "Sorry, you probably didn't want to hear all of that."

"It's fine, I asked you about it, so..." Craig trails off.

"How about we get some rest now?" Kenny suggests, thinking it might be best to stop talking about the heavy subject for now. Craig nods and Kenny goes to lie down.

"Um, can we sleep apart tonight?" Craig asks a bit awkwardly.

"Why?"

"Because... I don't have any pants," he explains.

Kenny looks down at his bare legs, "Oh yeah..." he says as if just remembering that fact. Although a part of him had indeed almost forgotten about it with the heavy conversation they were just having before. Craig's grip around his legs tightens more as Kenny continues to look at them. "Are you sure? You'll be colder if we sleep apart," he looks back up, "especially with no pants."

"Yes, I'm sure," Craig mumbles, his shoulders seeming to rise up a bit as he brings his knees even closer to himself.

Kenny finds the gesture a bit strange but shrugs his shoulders and lies down. Craig lies down about an arm's length away from him, curled up, with his knees still very close to his chest. He closes his eyes and shivers a bit. Kenny notices when the shivering doesn't die down.

"Craig..." he says, and the other opens his eyes to looks at him, "come here."

"I told you I-"

"You're shivering, so just get over here already," Kenny tells him.

Craig pauses for a moment, as if thinking before saying, "Fine," and giving in.

He moves closer to Kenny, who then wraps his arms around him and holds him as close as he can.

"Are you going to be comfortable sleeping like that?" Kenny asks, taking note of how Craig's knees were still in front of him.

"I'll be fine like this. J-Just go to sleep already," Craig replies shivering a bit.

Kenny smiles one more time before closing his eyes.


	10. Chapter 10

In one of the very long white halls, Kenny walks down it between two larger men at either side of him. They're holding him up by the arms so that he won't fall down, like usual.

"So they want to move this one huh?" one of the men says pointing at him.

"Yeah," the other man replies. Kenny's eyes widen, his full attention on the conversation the two men were now having, "But they want us to bring the subject back to it's current room first, while they prepare the new one."

"Oh, was that it?" the first man asks.

The second man nods, "They want all S classes in the same area. Weren't you listening?"

"Of course I was, it's just that all orders start sounding the same from them after awhile," the first man says then scoffs, "so they think this is one of the special subjects?" he glances down at Kenny.

"Yup," the second man responds.

"Why's that?"

"Not sure. But I remember one of the doctors mumbling something about possible... immortality or rather."

"Seriously?!" the first man says in disbelief.

"I know, sounds crazy."

At that, everything around Kenny becomes far and distant, his mind trying to process all of this new information that was coming at him all at once. He was afraid, because it looked like he was going to be switching rooms and leaving Craig, confused by the S class thing and was horrified by what they had meant by saying immortality. He knew that he could come back to life because of the weird regenerative factor he had, but he didn't think that meant that he was immortal or anything. That thought never even crossed his mind.

"But yeah, they want us to put the subject in it's current room till they're done," the second man continues as Kenny starts tuning everything back in around him, "which probably won't be too long."

"Then why are they making us take the subject back, instead of just waiting for the room to be done?" the first man asks irritated.

"Because they needed the operating room for the next subject, and orders are orders," the second man replies flatly.

"Right," the first man scoffs again.

The two men fall silent as they approach the door leading in to the familiar small white room. The first man takes out a keycard from his pocket and slides it through the door's keycard lock, a small light on it turns green and he opens the door. He looks down at Kenny, a look ordering him to move in to the room. Kenny does and the door slams shut behind him.

When Kenny looks around the dim room, he spots Craig asleep curled up on the floor. He hesitates before walking over to him, not really sure how to go about telling him what he has just heard, still somewhat confused about it himself. When he reaches Craig, he kneels down next to him and places a hand on his shoulder.

"Craig," he says gently, "wake up," he rocks his shoulder a bit.

Craig stirs and slowly opens his eyes and looks at him, "Kenny?" he asks lazily rubbing at them.

"Hey," Kenny replies, "I need to tell you something."

"What is it?"

"I..." Kenny trails off, still unsure of how to go about telling him.

"Your arm again..." Craig says taking note of the stitching on Kenny's arm.

"It's nothing," Kenny says glancing down at it.

"But-"

"It will heal up in no time and be good as new."

"And then it will just happen again..." Craig mumbles, "they will just continue cutting in to you, over and over again."

That was most likely true. They probably would just keep on doing that to him, but still, he didn't want to worry Craig even more with what he needed to tell him.

"Then I will just heal over and over again," Kenny says stoically, "just like I always-"

"Don't say that!" Craig exclaims, cutting him off, "You're saying it so casually, like it's nothing! But you still feel the pain of it, each and every time! And each time they bring you back here, you have more wounds than when you left! You smile and try and act like it's nothing much, but I can tell how much pain you're in! I can tell, and... it hurts. It hurts so much when I see you suffering in pain. More than any physical wound ever inflicted on me..." he grabs at his chest lightly, squeezing the fabric of the shirt in his hand, "it hurts, and I don't know why."

Kenny doesn't say anything when the other finishes. He just looks at him surprised. Not at all expecting Craig to have said something like that to him. He thinks back briefly on how different Craig is now, compared to when they were first put in to the room together. Back when Craig had told him he was afraid of him. But Kenny had to wonder if that was really true, was he actually afraid of him? When he thinks back to the expression on Craig's face that day, it didn't look like fear to him. He saw uncertainty yes, and something else, but it was not fear. He thought that maybe it was something else that mimic's fear in a way. Thinking about it over for quite some time after that, but couldn't come to an answer. However, with what Craig had just said to him, another thought began to steadily emerge in the back of his mind.

"Kenny?" Craig asks, when the other falls silent after an extended period.

Kenny is quickly pulled from his thoughts by the mention of his name,"Yeah?"

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, really," Kenny nods, trying to reassure him. He knew though, with what he had to say next it was anything but that, "Craig listen... there's no easy way to tell you this."

"What is it?" Craig asks concerned.

"I overheard those two men in uniform talking and... it looks like they plan on moving me to another room."

"W-What?!" Craig exclaims, his eyes widening with fear, "They're moving you?! Why?!" he grabs a hold of Kenny's shoulders.

"Because I'm an 'S class' or something," Kenny replies, "they said I was a special subject, and that all S classes are to be moved to the same area."

"S class?" Craig repeats confused.

"Yeah, they seem to put us in some sort of classing system and think I might possibly be..." Kenny pauses before saying the next set of words with uncertainty, "Immortal or something..."

"I-Immortal?" Craig repeats shocked.

"Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction to... I knew that I had come back to life before already, but I thought it was just some healing-regenerative power thing that developed in me or something. I didn't think it could be anything like what they had said..." Kenny adds.

Craig's grip tightened on Kenny, "When are they coming for you?" he asks, wanting to know how much time he had left with him.

"I don't know, soon I think. They said I was only going to be here until the new room was prepared for me."

Craig's gaze falls, "...It's not fair. They've taken so much away from me already. And now they're taking you away too..." he looks back up, tears now rolling down his face, "I don't want them to take you away from me! I _need_ you!"

The words cause something inside of Kenny to stir and tighten in his chest, and for a split second he can't breathe. Craig's last sentence replaying it's self over on repeat in his head. Before Kenny can say anything Craig quickly moves away from him, grabbing at the sides of his head.

"Ah!"

"Craig?" Kenny asks.

Craig's grip on his head tightens more, and a faint flicker of light starts to form in his eyes. He begins to scream when they do.

Kenny goes to reach for him,"Cr-"

"Stop!" Craig yells and stands up, backing away from him, "Don't come near me! I'll hurt you!"

As Craig's eyes glow brighter, sparks start to form at the corners of them. Flickering around wildly, almost wanting to escape them. Kenny stares at him in amazement at the sight before him, but when Craig let's out another scream of pain he snaps out of it. He Stands up and walks towards the taller boy. Craig tries to turn away from him but Kenny doesn't let him, he wraps his arms around him and holds him tight.

"You can't hurt me. Not ever."

Kenny continues to hold Craig close to him and the sparks in Craig's eyes start to die down, eventually fading away. Craig closes his eyes as he calms down and returns the hug, wrapping his own arms around Kenny.

"We will get out of here, somehow," Kenny says quietly, "so please try and be strong until then, okay?"

"Okay..." Craig replies quietly.

Kenny pulls away from the hug and smiles a bit, "Good."

"Your face," Craig says lifting a hand to it, he gently runs his fingers along a small wound that was created by his sparks, "I-I'm sorry I-"

"It's okay, it will heal," Kenny says moving his hand away, "now..." he places his hand on Craig's cheek, and softly wipes away some of the tears. "No more tears alright?" he smiles at him.

Craig stares at him for a few moments as an expression begins crossing over his face, one that Kenny had never seen before. But before he can register it properly, Craig begins to slowly bring his face closer to his. His eyes starting to close as he wraps his arms around the back Kenny's neck.

"C-Craig?" Kenny asks, his cheeks beginning to flush from the ever drawing closeness of Craig's face to his.

A loud slam is heard then as the door to the room opens and the two tear away from each other instantly. When they both look to the door, they see the two men in white uniforms standing there.

"Let's go subject 122," one of the men says.

"No!" Craig exclaims.

"Craig..." Kenny says looking at him, "remember what I said?" Craig nods slowly, "I will see you again, I promise," he smiles and turns towards the door, "See you later," with that he walks to the two men.

Craig watches him go, one of his hands reaching out slightly as if wanting to grab and stop Kenny from leaving, but he knew he couldn't. When Kenny leaves the room, he glances back at Craig once more and smiles at him before the door closes and the light from the hallway is cut off as the room envelopes in to a darkness again. The only company now for Craig, was the lone small window that moonlight shined in through every once and a while.


	11. Chapter 11

Some time later, in a room with no windows. There hung a figure from the ceiling down to the center of the room on a hook.

Kenny.

His wrists were bound above his head, tied together by a rope over the hook that was attached to a pulley. He hung about an inch away from the floor and every so often the pulley would creak from holding up his body. The lights in the room illuminating off of blood that had been splattered on to various parts of the floor beneath him and bits of it on his shirt as well, some old, some new. All of it collected through the many days that had gone by since he was first put in to the room. Since he was taken away from Craig.

The door to the room swings open and two men in white uniforms walk in.

"Tsk, why do we have to stand guard and watch this subject?" one of the men, who is a bit bulkier than the other says.

"Because orders," the thinner one says.

"Yeah, but it's not going to go anywhere. And do we even need these things?" the bulkier one asks, taking a gun out of his holster.

"Precaution," the thinner one stats.

The bulkier one scoffs, then aims the gun in the direction of Kenny's head. Kenny looks at him, but doesn't say anything. The man grins a bit then turns to a small metal table beside him, filled with an array of surgical instruments and puts the gun down on it.

"Man look at these things," the bulkier man says picking up a small scalpel, "I don't even know how half of these thing work," he glances at the thinner man, "hey, maybe we should try them out?"

"If you want to face the consequences of messing with the subject, go ahead," the thinner one sighs.

"Doesn't this one heal really fast or something?"

"Yeah."

"Then they won't notice if there are a few holes and cuts in the subject, because it will heal up."

The thinner one let's out another sigh, "Fine, whatever, don't blame me if they find out though."

The bulkier man grins and starts to approach Kenny, "I always kind of wondered, what it would be like to cut in to flesh. Should be interesting."

A grimace crosses Kenny's face, as the man draws closer to him. Suddenly a loud beeping goes off. The bulkier man stops and the thinner man takes out a small device, like that of a pager.

"Shit," the thinner man says.

"What?"

"They need back up with that freak subject again."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, let's go," the thinner man says as he starts heading out of the room.

"Hey- wait!"

The bulkier man rushes over to the door and hurriedly places the scalpel back onto the table, before quickly leaving the room himself. When the door shuts, Kenny's eyes close and his head hangs downwards. The rope around his wrists digging into his skin, causing it to burn as he sways a bit. The creaking of the pulley now being the only thing left making any sound in the room. He had gotten use to hearing it's familiar rhythm. However, as he moves in one direction it sounds slightly different. He opens his eyes and looks up at it. He thinks something seems off and squints a bit, trying to focus on it. His eyes widen slightly as he realizes that the screw in the side of the pulley is loose.

He vaguely wonders just how long it's been that way and when it had started to come loose. The thought that it might have loosened from the constant pulling him up and down, or taking him off and putting him back on it, crosses his mind. Or maybe someone just didn't care enough to double check and make sure it was secure, either way, an idea starts to form in his mind. He begins to swing his body around in different directions, hoping that if he does it enough, or in the right angle, that it just might give way.

With a small clank, the screw eventually falls and hits the ground. Then the whole thing gives way under his weight, and Kenny falls onto the floor. He rises onto his forearms and looks around the room. His eyes land on the metal table and he slowly gets up, his joints aching some as he does. When he reaches the metal table, he moves his bound wrists onto it and picks up one of the small saws that are on it. He carefully places the saw in between his wrists and begins rubbing the rope back and forth against it. The sharp ends of the blade beginning to cut away at it until it snaps apart. He moves his now freed wrists away and rubs them a bit, they were sore and red from being tied up for so long.

As he thinks of his next move, his eyes land on the gun that still rests on the table. And he knows that this is it, this is the chance he's been looking for since the very beginning. The chance to get out of this horrible place. He picks up the gun having made up his resolution, knowing that he's ready for what ever may come. He places his hand on the door handle and opens it, the two men in white uniforms not having enough time to have locked it as they rushed out before. He glances around the long white hall on the other side of the door before taking off down it.

His mind set to the next thing he must do.

 **…**

In a familiar small white room, just below a small window, Craig sits. His arms hugging his knees to his chest. His thoughts wandering as he sits there alone in the growing darker room. The sun having almost completely set. Images of the torturous experiments he's been put through, keep on replaying over in his mind. He squeezes his arms around his legs tighter, he felt like he couldn't take it anymore. When Kenny had been there with him everything felt okay, even if it wasn't, his presence of just being there made him feel better. But now that he was gone, everything felt much worse.

He knew that, at least back then when he was taken away, Kenny would be there most of the time when he got back. And he wouldn't be greeted in to this cold empty room. Kenny would be there to hold and comfort him when it all got to be too much. Craig's chest tightens, and he wonders why it still does that after all the time that's gone by. Why does it still feel like this when he thinks about him. How could he still feel afraid of him, even though he wanted nothing more than for the other boy to be right next to him now. He didn't understand just what this feeling was. He places a hand onto his chest, and tries to think of why his heart beats this way whenever he thought of him. Because if it's not fear he's feeling, than what else could it be.

Just then the door opens. Two men in uniform walk in and Craig tenses, figuring that they're there to take him away for more experimenting again.

"You sure this okay?" one of them asks.

"Yeah don't worry about it. Besides, this one is always giving me problems," the other replies, "and where we're doing it, they won't even check there, " he grins, and suddenly a very bad feeling rises in Craig, "this is going to feel fucking good."

A sense of dread and panic starts to spread it's way throughout Craig at those ominous words, as the two grow more and more closer to him. He quickly gets up with his back to the wall.

"Be a good little subject now," the grinning man says as he reaches a hand for Craig.

Craig quickly tries to run past them in an attempt to flee.

"Grab it!"

And the other man quickly grabs Craig's wrist and pulls him back harshly. He pulls so hard on Craig's arm that it cause him to fall backwards on to the floor. His head and back making hard contact with it, causing a throbbing pain to pass through him.

"Now then..." the grinning man says, "let's try that again, shall we?" and he turns Craig onto his stomach, while the other one holds his arms down.

"No!" Craig yells struggling to get free, "Let me go!"

The grinning man grabs at Craig's pants line, "Now let's have some, _fucking_ fun," and pulls it down. Right away Craig begins to feel something kneading away at him, the man's hands. He feels them spread him, "It looks nice and tight in there," the man let's out a heated pant, "I bet this will feel real good."

Craig lies there terrified and unable to move or do anything. His thoughts screaming at him. He didn't want these two men to touch him, or be anywhere near him. He wanted to get as far away as possible from them.

The man's hands readjust on Craig, gripping even harder on him and spreading him as wide as possible. Craig then feels a hard warmth rubbing against him. It stops after a couple of seconds and pulls away. Then he feels that hardness return, but this time it starts to prod at him. Craig's heart stops, and complete utter horror takes over him as he feels the hard twitching thing begin to try and nudge it's way into him.

 _No!_

Craig's mind screams at him.

 _I don't want this, I don't want this, I don't want this, I don't want this!_

Tears begin to fall from his eyes and he screams.

" _KENNY!_ "

The grinning man laughs, "No one is going to-"

Before the man can finish his sentence, a loud bang echos throughout the room. The man falls to the floor with a dull thud and a new small hole in his head, no longer grinning.

The other man looks up, "What the-"

"Get. The. _Fuck_. Off of him," a cold voice demands.

Another loud bang goes off, and the man holding Craig's arms down falls to the floor, a pool of crimson blood forming next to another one.

When Craig looks over to the doorway through his blurry vision. He sees Kenny standing there, gun in hand and wearing an expression that he's never seen on his face before.

One of murderous intent.

When Craig sits up and fixes his pants, Kenny's gaze falls onto him. He lowers the gun and his expression is almost an immediate change, his eyes softening in to sadness.

"Craig I-"

Kenny starts, but doesn't get the chance to finish before Craig runs over to him and hugs him tightly, leaning all of his weight onto Kenny. The action is so quick that it catches Kenny off guard and he ends up falling down onto his knees along with Craig. Craig cries into his chest, and even harder when Kenny pats his head and gently wraps an arm around him. Craig buries his face deeper into Kenny's chest, and wraps his arms more tightly around the other. Not wanting to let go of him. Afraid to.

Kenny doesn't say anything more though, only sitting there and letting the other one cry as much as he wanted. Waiting until he was ready to move. Not wanting to break the fragile stat that he was in right now. After a few minutes go by, Craig begins to calm down a bit.

"Always..." Craig sobs quietly, "you're always there when I need you the most," he didn't care how Kenny got there at that moment, he was just so glad that he was.

"It's okay now," Kenny says softly and continues patting his head.

When those men had been touching him before, Craig had felt disgusted and gross by it. But right here and now, with Kenny, it was the complete opposite. He felt so safe and secure in his arms. He was the only one, who Craig ever wanted to touch him.

"The only one..." Craig whispers quietly to himself.

"Huh?" Kenny says looking down at him.

"Nothing," Craig says and pulls a bit away from him.

Kenny stares at him for a moment before he reaches up both of his hands and wipes the tears away from his face.

"There," Kenny smiles gently.

Something inside of Craig's chest tightens again, like before. The feeling he couldn't quite explain making it's return. He found himself very slowly being drawn towards Kenny. Every centimeter closer causing the beating in his chest to increase. A loud blaring alarm goes off then and they both glance around quickly.

"What's-"

"Shit!" Kenny exclaims, figuring that they must have noticed him missing by now.

He quickly stands to his feet and runs over to one of the dead men's bodies. He hurriedly checks all the pockets on it.

"What are you-"

"Keycard!" Kenny says and holds up a small white card, "I thought it might be useful to have one on hand. So I'm taking this," he walks back over to Craig and grabs his hand, "we need to go. This might be our only chance to escape," Craig nods and stands up, and with that Kenny pulls him forward, "let's go!"

And the two of them take off running down the hall.


	12. Chapter 12

After running down several halls and many turns, Kenny and Craig quickly hide to the side of one of the hall walls as some of the men in uniforms run down another hall across from them.

"Where are we going?" Craig asks in a hushed tone.

"I don't know, anywhere that leads out of this place," Kenny replies.

He didn't know where most of these halls lead too, they all looked pretty much the same to him. And it didn't help that on the day he was taken to this place, he was blindfolded either. A part of him thinks that they may have done that on purpose in case something like this were to happen. He glances up and spots a camera, one of many he's seen so far. He waits for it to look the other way before pulling Craig forward and running down another hall.

When they reach another turn, they go around it avoiding the camera as it scans back down the hall. Kenny spots a door at the end of the hall they were now in, big letters on it reading 'CONTROL ROOM'. Looking at it, Kenny gets an idea and starts heading for it. When he reaches the door, he slides the keycard through the slot and it turns green unlocking it.

"Why are we going in here?" Craig asks.

"I want to see if there's something that could show us a possible way out, or something that could help us in here," Kenny replies as he pushes the door open.

When they enter the room, someone is sitting with their back towards them in the center of it. Whoever they were, they were much to busy with monitoring the controls and screens in front of them. Kenny glances over at Craig and raises a finger to his lips, telling him to stay quiet. He let's go of Craig's hand and then slowly reaches for the gun in the waistband of his pants, while walking cautiously towards the person. When he reaches the person, both hands are on the gun and he presses it lightly to their head.

"Don't move," Kenny orders.

The person, who is a man, stiffens at the feeling of the object pressing next to his head. And he carefully glances back to look at Kenny, "You're..." he trails off.

"Tell me how to get out of here," Kenny demands, he was willing to do whatever it took to get both he and Craig out of this place.

"I can't tell you that, if I did then-"

"Tell me how to get out of here, or I will shoot you," Kenny interrupts.

The man falls silent for a moment, "Even if I tell you, there's no way you'll get out of here. Not with all the guards running around."

Kenny knew that he was right. The chances of them getting out without being seen were slim. They were lucky to have even made it this far already. But he couldn't give up, not yet. He glaces down at the controls and sees a button with the words 'Emergency System Shut Down' written in small black letters above it. Then looks back at the man.

"Unlock all the doors," Kenny says.

"What?"

"Unlock all the doors in this building."

"A-Are you crazy? If I do that, then all the doors including the subjects rooms will open."

At that moment, Kenny also remembered how him and Craig were not the only victims subjected to the awful experiments. There were others, many others, people he knew but had no idea if they were even still alive or not. But if he did this, then maybe he could also help them to escape as well.

"Even more reason for me to have you open them then," Kenny tells him.

"You don't understand, some of those subjects are-"

"Unlock the doors," Kenny repeats, pushing the gun harder against the man's skull.

The man stares at Kenny for a good while before sighing, then typing something into the computer in front of him, "You have no idea what you're doing," he says then presses a button, "no idea..." as soon as the button is pressed, a different alarm goes off, taking over the previous one and the door to the room opens. "There. All the damn doors are opened."

"One last thing," Kenny says, "will they stay like that if the power goes out?" there's a silence from the man, "Answer."

"...Yes," the man finally replies.

"Oh, well in that case," Kenny says and then suddenly slams a hand down onto the emergency system shut down button, "I know exactly what I'm doing."

The man's eyes go wide,"You-"

The alarm stops and everything goes dark as red hazard lights turn on. Kenny thinks that should be a enough, but he needs to make sure that it stays that way. He aims the gun at the screens and fires some rounds, then down at the control panel. The man quickly ducks for cover. Kenny shoots until there are no more bullets left.

The man looks up at him, "Wh-what are you-"

"To make sure you can't undo anything," Kenny says flatly.

He walks back towards Craig, who is somewhat surprised and a bit afraid that Kenny was cable of acting in such a way. But as Kenny slides his hand back into Craig's, he comes back and holds onto it as he's lead out of the room. Kenny dropping the keycard and empty ammunition gun as they leave.

"Why did you have that guy unlock everything?" Craig asks as they run down the halls.

"Because, I thought it could buy us some time. And also because... I wanted to free others who are suffering too."

"Oh."

"Besides, now that all the doors are opened, we're sure to find a way out," Kenny says smiling back at him briefly.

A loud sound of some sort goes off as they reach a four-way cross hall causing them to stop.

"What was that?" Craig asks.

"I don't know, an explosion?" Kenny guesses as he looks around, trying to figure out which path to go down.

Suddenly screams are heard, and gunfire goes off from down one of the halls. They both look down the direction it's coming from, and notice that the hall is pitch black. And then everything falls silent. They continue to look down it, trying to figure out what's going on when bad feeling makes it's way in to Kenny. And then faintly, very faintly, he thinks he sees something glinting emerge from the darkness. Like that of a small pair of eyes.

Craig's hand squeezes Kenny's and he moves closer to the shorter boy, "A-Are those..."

Kenny tugs on Craig's hand, ushering him to move again, "This way," he says quietly, and the two of them run down a different hall from the glinting orbs.

"Were those, eyes?" Craig asks sounding a bit scared.

"I don't know, maybe."

"They came from where those screams were."

"I know..." is all Kenny says.

All that he could hope is that, whatever it is, it doesn't follow after them.

They keep running and turning down various halls, looking for any way out of there. And when Kenny starts thinking that they might be trapped in there forever, he spots it. An exit. Lights from the outside of the building, landing on to the ground in front of it.

Craig's eyes widen, "Is that-"

"Yeah- I think it is!" Kenny exclaims, "It's an exit!"

Suddenly it's like a surge of adrenaline runs through them both, and they're moving much faster than before. Towards the door, towards freedom. Faster and faster and _faster_ until- A bright light from above beams down onto them as their feet touch the cold evening grass. And for second, it almost all seems so surreal to them. The smell of grass and trees, the big huge open sky above them, the cool damp air that touches their skin. They had made it out. They escaped that place. It had felt like a dream, but it wasn't, it was real, and both of them couldn't help but smile as they continued running. However, the smiles didn't last long when they spot flashlights shinning throughout the forest around them. A part of Kenny had hoped that those people wouldn't be searching around outside yet, but they were, and one of the lights lands on them.

"I found some over here!" a voice shouts.

The two take a quick turn and look back behind them to see more lights beginning to gather. When Kenny looks forward again, he is suddenly met with a drop off. He manages to stop in time, but Craig who hadn't been paying attention, runs right into him and they both go over. The two of them fall down the steep drop, getting scratches from the rocks, sticks and bushes, until they land at the bottom of it.

"Are you okay?" Kenny manages out.

"Yeah, are you?" Craig asks back.

"Yeah," Kenny replies, "although you're kind of crushing me a bit."

Craig groggily pushes himself up and it's only then does he notice that he some how ended up on top of Kenny.

"Oh-um sorry," he says quickly apologizing and getting up off him.

"It's fine," Kenny chuckles as he gets up, then reaches out a hand to him, "let's keep moving though. I'm sure those people aren't far behind us," as Craig takes Kenny's hand again, he flinches. And Kenny glances down at it, now seeing that there is a small cut, "You're bleeding..."

"It must have happened while we were falling," Craig says moving his hand away to look at the small wound on his finger.

Kenny grabs the end of his now torn shirt and rips a piece off the bottom of it. He then takes Craig's hand and brings the wounded finger to his lips and gently kisses it, clearing away the blood. Craig stares at him wide-eyed as he then takes the small piece of his shirt and ties it around the finger tightly.

"There, all better," Kenny smiles.

Craig looks at it, his eyes still wide,"U-Uh, thanks-"

"They went this way!" a voice shouts from up above the drop.

Kenny quickly grabs Craig's other hand, and pulls him forward, "Come on," he urges.

As they start to head into thicker forest, a light from behind lands on them and a loud bang from the top of the drop echos out. A very sudden and sharp stabbing pain, wrings throughout Kenny's shoulder, causing him to scream.

"Kenny!"

"Keep going!" Kenny tells the other and places his free hand over the wound, "I'm fine."

Craig gives him a worried look but continues running next to him. They keep on running through the thick forest until they come to a clearing. As they approach the center of it, they stop when they realize there's a big rift going right across it.

"Shit..." Kenny murmurs, as he looks around for another way.

"This way!" another voice shouts.

They both near the very edge of the drop. Kenny knew that there was no way they could jump across such a wide gap, he looks down it but can't see the bottom because of how dark it was. The two of them were cornered.

"Kenny..." Craig says quietly and squeezes his hand.

"It's okay," Kenny says, "everything will be okay," and he hugs Craig with his free arm.

Faintly then, Kenny hears something from below. Something that sounds like a lot of rushing water. He glances back down the drop and something important nags at the back of his mind. But his thoughts get pulled when he hears another voice shout.

"Craig... I'll distract them, and you try and make a run for it," Kenny says, pulling back from him.

"What?! No!" Craig yells, "I'm not going anywhere without you!"

"Craig-"

"No! I'm not leaving you!" Craig protests and wraps both of his arms around him.

"Craig, listen..." Kenny says pushing him back lightly, "I don't want them to get you. I want you to be free. So while I distract them, I want you to make a break for it."

"Kenny..." Craig looks down, "I-I can't," he clenches his fist, "I can't leave you! You mean too much to me, for me to ever just leave you!" he cries out as tears were now starting to form in his eyes.

Kenny knew that Craig wouldn't leave him no matter how much he told him to, he could see it in his eyes. But he wanted Craig to be free, he _needed_ him to be. He couldn't stand the thought of him suffering anymore. So with that, his next choice would probably be the hardest one he ever has to make. But he also knew that this was the only option left for him. And that no matter what, he would not let those people get a hold of Craig, no matter how painful the cost is. He reaches a hand up to Craig's face and leans forward, closing his eyes as he gently presses his lips to Craig's forehead, kissing it. When he pulls away from him, a somber smile crosses his face.

"Goodbye."

And before Craig has a chance to say anything, he finds himself suddenly falling backwards as Kenny's hands shove him away.

"There!" a voice yells, "It's the immortal subject!"

"Fire!" another voice says.

And then in the next second shots go off, and it's the last thing Craig hears or sees as he falls down into the darkness, screaming out for the other.

When the shooting ceases, Kenny falls down flat onto the ground with a dull thud. Bullet holes riddling his now motionless body.

"There's no way that other subject could've survived from a fall this high..." a man says looking over the drop.

"Even so, we have our orders. We still need to check the area," one wearing a hat says.

"What about this one?" another asks, pointing to Kenny.

"Take this one back. They still need it," the man in the hat orders and glances down at Kenny's body, only faintly noticing what seems to have been a tear that had rolled down his cheek.

 **…**

Later on that evening, somewhere deep in the forest under a now full moon sky. A small figure washes up onto some small rocks. A small figure with black hair and wearing all white torn clothing.

Craig.

He lied there for a good while before coming to and coughing harshly. When his coughs calm down, he glances around the foreign area he was in. After a few more seconds, he eventually moves to sit up properly with quite some difficultly. He tries to recall what had happened before he washed up here. A quick image flashes through his mind then of Kenny saying goodbye to him.

And he remembers.

He remembers Kenny pushing him over, and the somber expression on his face, and the gun shots going off. Then darkness as he was swallowed up whole by the rushing river at the bottom.

 _I want you to be free._

The words echo loudly in his mind and a part of him wonders if Kenny had guessed about there being a river at the bottom of that drop. He pulls his legs up to his chest and leans on them, wondering what he should do now. Wondering what could he do. He wanted to be with Kenny, but he knew that he couldn't go back, not only because he was lost, but also because he wasn't strong enough. He knew that if he went back, he would only get recaptured again and experimented on, or worse, because he wasn't strong enough to fight those people off. He couldn't protect himself, so how did he intend to protect Kenny as well. He couldn't, because he was weak. And he knew it.

He buries his face into his knees. It wasn't supposed to end up like this, it wasn't supposed to be just him. It was meant to be both of them, not just one of them. And if Kenny had known about the river, why didn't he just say they should've jumped together, he didn't understand it. Craig closes his eyes as he begins to feel tears welling up in them. But when he hears something off in the bushes, his head jolts up and he stops, then quickly gets up to his feet. He knew that he couldn't stay here, it was still too dangerous. And with that he heads deeper into the forest.

He walks until he gets too tired to go on anymore. His bare feet hurting from the twigs and rocks cutting in to them. He finds a spot to lie down, next to a big tree trunk and huddles up into a ball to keep himself warm. An image of Kenny kissing his forehead flashes through his mind and he raises a hand up to it, touching it gently. He winces a bit when he does and realizes that it's because of his injured finger. He looks at it, the piece of clothing still tied tightly around it. He closes his hand into a small fist and then brings it close to his chest. He could feel the sting of tears starting to well up again in his eyes.

"Kenny..." he sobs quietly.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Six Years Later**_

Crisp night air fills the surroundings, as the moon shines brightly above. Not a single cloud is to be seen in the night sky, obscuring it's beauty. However, the same could not be said for the woods that lie under it. They hid much under the layers of leaves and entangled branches. But what they hid most of all was a small group of people that were on the move, all of them headed towards a very particular goal.

They all spread out when they near the base of a mountain that rests beside a small lake. At first glance, the mountain would seem like any other. But when looking again, you could see things such as doors and widows scattered to various parts of it. It hid something deep inside of it, and that something, was their goal.

"Alright, in position. How about you guys?" one of them says into an earpiece.

"I'm in position," one replies back.

"We're good to go whenever," another standing near a large drain pipe says.

"Great, so everyone's ready then?" a female voice asks and the others respond with a yes accordingly, "Then let's get this done."

"Right," one of them says, from their position in the woods. They then lift up a hand, "Here's hoping this goes as planned..." they focus on some lights that hang above a giant machine door, causing them to start flickering on and off. The door opens and some people walk out to investigate, and in the next second, all the lights around the door go out. "Okay, I've drawn their attention."

Elsewhere two other figures sit and one of them nods to the other, giving the go ahead. Then the other turns to a small section of metal wall they're facing and puts their hands onto it. A faint light emits from them as a small squared line shape forms in the wall, creating some kind of space section in it. They then remove the section from the wall, and it floats next to them. They reach into the metal wall and grab some wires that were hidden in it, handing them over to the other one beside them. The other takes the wires and connects them to a small black laptop they have opened up, and begins typing away.

"Alright, I'm hacking in to their system now," the female voice says. After a couple of seconds something eventually pops up on to her screen and she smirks, "Looks like you were right after all sparky."

"What level?" one of them asks.

"The fourteenth."

"Dang, that's pretty deep," the same voice says.

"It's the last level," the female voice says, "have you guys gotten in yet?"

"Oh uh-" the same voice goes to reply, but when they turn around to look at the drain pipe they're standing next to. They notice that where bars had been moments ago, are now gone, having been cut down, "Looks like it."

"Okay, I'll guide you guys," the female voice says, "when you get in to the room that connects to the drain, there should be a door."

When two figures emerge in a room, from a cover door in the floor connecting to the drain pipe, they shut it behind them and swiftly make their way to the door they were told of in the room.

"Okay, we're in. Now what?" one of them that is slightly shorter than the other asks.

"You will need to go right, then all the way to the end of the hall. There should be an elevator that can bring you down to the thirteenth level," the female voice instructs.

"The thirteenth ?" the shorter one repeats.

"You'll need to take another elevator to get to the fourteenth one," the female voice responds, "I'll disconnect the cameras on that floor and replace the footage with already prerecorded information on a loop. That way you guys can sneak past them. But hurry, I don't know how long this can go on for, before they start to notice something's up."

"Got it," the shorter one responds and nods to the taller one next to them, "I'll scout out a head a bit, and let you know if the coast is clear or not," and with that they head off through the door. Turning completely invisible as soon as they do. A few seconds go by before they reply into their ear piece, "Okay, it's clear."

The taller one then heads out of the room, keeping careful watch on their surroundings. They eventually catch up to the other one who's now visible again.

"There's no one around," the shorter one says.

"The guards on that floor, must have gone to check out the strange power outage near the front," the female voice informs.

"Either that or there aren't that many guards on this floor," the shorter one says as they run down a hall, eventually arriving at an elevator with the taller one, "Okay, we're at the elevator."

"Alright, I'll hack into it so you guys can go to the thirteenth level," the female voice says, and after a couple of seconds a small light above the elevator door turns green and it dings open.

Both the figures walk into it, then spot a small camera in the upper right corner of it, "There's a camera in here..." the shorter one says.

"I've already taken care of it," the female voice replies and the doors close as the elevator begins to descend."When the elevator gets to the thirteenth level, you will need to head down some long halls. You will need to take a left then another left and a right. Then you will find another elevator leading down to the fourteenth level. And I have to tell you guys, it's one hell of a massive level. If I wasn't here to direct you guys, you'd probably get lost."

"Yes, thank you almighty hacker, we'd be lost without you," the shorter one says sarcastically into the ear piece, and some stifled chuckles are heard through it from the others.

"Ha ha, funny. But can we keep in mind the seriousness of the situation?" the female voice says dryly.

"Yeah don't worry we got it," the shorter one says.

The elevator reaches it's destination with a ding, and the doors open. The two figures head out and reach the first turn.

"There are some guards standing look out," the shorter one informs.

"I'll see if I can draw their attention," the female voice says.

"How are you..." the shorter one trails off when they spot a door nearby opening and closing, in repeated sessions. The guards walk towards it and the shorter one gets an idea, "Wait, keep it open for a second."

"Why?" the female voice asks.

"Just do it."

The door stays open and the short one goes invisible, The two guards seem ready to walk away, when suddenly one of them gets knocked backwards into the room, followed shortly afterwards by the other one.

"Okay- close it and lock the door now!" the shorter one quickly says. And the door quickly shuts and locks. The shorter one then kicks the keycard lock, breaking it. "There, that should take of them for a bit."

"What happened?" one of the others asks.

"I pushed the guards into a room and now they're trapped in there," the shorter one replies.

"Oh," is the only simple response they get.

"Hey, it was a good idea!" the shorter one protests.

The taller one continues down the hall walking by the other, who then notices and moves to keep up with them. When they get to the next turn, they spot more guards down it.

"Damn more guards," the shorter one mutters.

"Sorry, there are no doors down that hall, I can't help you this time," the female voice says.

"It's alright, I got it," the shorter one says and they turn to the taller one, "I'll try and distract them, and when they aren't looking make a dash for it," they then turn invisible again and walk down the hall.

Next there is a loud banging somewhere on the hall's wall. The guards look in the direction of it and one of them walks towards it's source. Then they are suddenly knocked down, the other guard quickly raises their gun and moves forward. The guard makes it over to the one one the floor, then there's suddenly more banging down another hall. The guard turns towards it and heads down that hall.

The taller figure then goes down the hall and turns right, just before the corner that the guard had went down. They keep on going until they see another turn leading right and glance down it, making sure it's clear, which it seemed to be.

"Hey," the tall figure says into the ear piece.

"Oh, it finally speaks," the female voice says back.

"I'm at the elevator."

"Okay, hold on a second," the female voice says followed by typing sounds, the elevator door opens then, "you and Chase got there already?"

"Just me," they reply as they step into the elevator.

"Huh? Where's Chase then?"

"I'm a bit busy at the moment distracting some of the guards," the shorter figure, Chase, says into the ear piece.

"Oh, well I'm sure knowing you, you'll do fine at it," the female voice says.

"Hey!" Chase exclaims.

"Anyways, sparky, you will need to go down a lot of halls to get to that room."

When the elevator reaches it's level another ding goes off and the doors open. The tall figure walks out of it.

"Where do I head first?" they ask.

"Alright, listen closely, I'll guide you through it as you go along," the female voice instructs.

And the tall figure does, following all the directions through the labyrinth like halls. Until they come across two guards standing watch in front of a big mechanical circular door. The tall figure hides around a nearby corner and observes.

"I'm at the end of the hall. There's a big mechanical door with two guards standing watch in front of it. Is this the room?" the tall figure asks.

"Yes. I'll try to hack the door open," the female voices says.

"I'll take care of the guards then," the taller figure says, stepping away from the corner.

"Wait, hold on-"

But before anymore can be said, the tall figure rushes at them and they raise their guns.

"Hold it!" one of them yells, "Who are you?!"

But before they have time to react properly, the tall figure runs up to one of them and kicks the gun from their hands. Then just as quickly the figure turns and swings a leg back, kicking the guard's head hard enough to knock them down to the floor out cold. Then just as fast, grabs onto the other guard's gun and kicks their stomach, causing them to let go of it, then greeting them with the blunt end of it hitting their face and causing them to follow the other guard onto the floor in a state of unconsciousness.

"Okay, took care of them," the tall figure says, "how's the door going?"

"Jeez, so reckless..." the female voice responds dryly, "and almost there, this door sure has a lot of damn unnecessary firewalls. But it's nothing I can't handle," a smirk crosses her face as she unlocks the final code in the firewall, "got it."

The big mechanical circular door then winds up and opens, and the faint sound of gears turning could be heard as it does so. The tall figure looks in to the room, it's dark. But as soon as they step into it, the whole room light's up instantly. They see that the room is a huge, metallic, circular shape inside. They spot what also seems to be four giant test tubes filled with some kind of blue liquid in them, all placed around in a square-like shape with each tube being the corners. They also see all kinds of machinery spread about the room. However, it was what was in the center of this huge room, that was the real goal of this mission.

In the center of it lies a metal table, positioned at a slight angle. It's gears under it were locked in place keeping it that way. On top of it lie a person attached to it by steel clamps. As the tall figure walks slowly towards the metal table, they remove the black mask they had been wearing, wanting to see the person before them more clearly. As they get closer to the table, they start to see just what kind of condition the person is in, and a whirlwind of emotions dances through them.

They can't help but stare in sadness at the very mutilated looking body before them. Stitches running all of which way around the mouth and a sewn shut eye. The legs were gone, one from the knee down and one from the thigh, along with most of one arm from the elbow and a couple of fingers missing from the other. The head was completely shaven, showing stitches running along the scalp. And some areas on the body were bruised pretty badly, most were really red, having been swollen by the stitching. But even underneath all of that, they still knew that was the person they had been searching for all this time.

"Kenny?" the figure says quietly, "What the fuck did they do to you..."

The tall figure looks away as their hands clench tightly into fists, anger starting to rise inside of them. They had wanted to make whoever did this to him pay. They manage to calm down after a few seconds though, remembering why they had came here, and look back up. Slowly they reach a hand up and place it on the side of the stitched face.

"Kenny..." they repeat sadly.

Their gaze falls again as they try their best to keep control of all the emotions running through them at that moment. They had known going in that the condition of Kenny would be bad, but they had no idea just how bad. The figure wasn't even sure if their voice would reach him or not anymore with the condition he was in now. But their doubts are washed away fast when a voice speaks.

"Cra...ig..?" a very tired and worn out hoarse voice asks.

The tall figure looks up instantly at him after hearing his name be said.

"What are you... doing here?" Kenny asks.

Craig let's out a small laugh, like that of relief, "What a dumb question. I'm here for you," and a small smile spreads across his face.

"How did you... get here-"

A very loud alarm suddenly goes off, interrupting Kenny.

"Shit, they found out that someone hacked in to their system," the female voice tells everyone, "listen sparky eyes, if you've found your boyfriend already, grab him and get out now. Because it won't take them long to figure out what's going on here."

"Do you know how to unlock these things?" Craig asks Kenny, grabbing at the clamps and trying to open them.

"You need a keycard to unlock them... Usually one of the higher up scientists carries one with them..." Kenny replies.

And as much as Craig would love to hunt them down and kill each and every one of them for what they've done, there wasn't enough time to. So he decides to come up with a another plan.

"That will take too long," he says, "I think I have a better idea."

And with that, Craig's eyes begin to glow a warm light. Shinning brighter and brighter, until a beam of sparks shoots out of them. He aims the intense beam at the steel clamps, and one by one cuts them open, releasing the hold on Kenny. As Kenny starts to fall free from his steely metal confines, Craig reaches out both arms and catches him, wrapping his arms tightly around him.

"Finally..." Craig says quietly, "I got you back."

For a few moments Kenny doesn't move, but when he does, he slowly raises up his still intact arm and hugs Craig back. The hug doesn't last long though, as voices from the ear piece speak up. Snapping Craig back to the present time.

"Um, Craig, you still there?"

"Yeah, you still there sparky?"

Craig lowers Kenny onto the floor, sitting him up right, then presses down on the ear piece, "I'm here," he replies and removes his jacket.

"Did you find him?" a nasally sounding voice asks.

"Yeah, just got him down from a table he was attached to," Craig informs, then takes his jacket and wraps it around Kenny's bare body, zipping it up. After which, he puts the black mask back on to hide his face again, "We're on our way back to you guys," and with that, he picks Kenny back up in his arms.

"Okay, but hurry. I don't know how long I can keep in the system, till I get blocked off," the female voice says.

"I managed to lock out some of the guards, from the entrance outside. Hopefully it helps a bit," another voice says, "although I don't know how long that will last for."

"Got it," Craig replies, then looks at Kenny, "hold on tight. This might get a bit rough," and he takes off running out of the room. When he gets closer to where the elevator is located, he reaches up a hand and presses the ear piece, "Hey- Dot, you still able to control the elevators?"

"Yeah, for now," the female voice, Dot, replies.

"Alright, I'm almost there now, so get ready."

"You were able to memorize the route back?" Dot asks surprised.

"Yeah," Craig says and rounds a corner leading to the elevator, "I can see the elevator now."

"Okay, on it!" Dot says and types away.

As Craig reaches the elevator doors, they open and he runs inside of it. They close behind him after and the elevator begins to go up. When they open again reaching the thirteenth level, he continues on his path to the next one.

"Chase, I'm back on the thirteenth level, are you ready to go?" Craig asks.

"Yeah, I'm on my way now. Meet you at the elevator," Chase replies.

As Craig continues down the halls, he quickly approaches the next elevator.

"I'm at the next one!" Craig says.

"I'm on it!" Dot says and once again the doors open.

"Chase where the hell are you?!" Craig yells as he enters the elevator.

"Hold on, almost there!" Chase replies.

And about a second later, he comes around a hall corner. When he get about halfway down the hall to the elevator, some guards round the corner as well and follow after him, guns raised. Chase runs into the elevator and a guard yells at them to stop.

"Close it!" Chase yells and the doors soon start to close, following a loud bang going off. After they close all the way, Chase looks at Craig and then down to Kenny. He smiles, "So this is Kenny huh? Nice to finally meet you," he chuckles a bit, "wish we could've met a bit longer though," and he begins to cough, little splatters of blood making there way out of his mouth.

Craig spots a growing red spot, spreading across Chase's stomach, "You're..." he trails off.

"Yeah I know," Chase says and then collapses on to the floor.

"Hey!" Craig shouts.

"It's okay," Chase wheezes and places a hand over his stomach, "we were able to save your friend. So I'm okay with this. I just hope... that maybe now, you will finally be able to smile," he then looks at Kenny, "and Kenny, I may not know you but, you're lucky to have someone like Craig who would risk everything for you," the words cause Kenny to glance up at Craig, who is keeping his gaze fixated elsewhere. "And tell the others it's okay."

Craig looks at him, "Maybe I can-"

"No," Chase shakes his head, "I don't want you guys coming back to try and get me and risk getting caught in the process. Besides... It's already too late," and Craig looks down at the floor, seeing a big pool of blood forming around his body. The elevator reaches the first level with a ding, and the doors open. "Time to get going now. And don't worry about me, I'm just going to take a long rest is all..." and with that, Chase closes his eyes.

Craig lingers there for a few seconds watching him, but when he doesn't see Chase's chest moving anymore, he turns and heads out of the elevator. Knowing that there's nothing he can do for him now.

"Damn it," Craig mutters under his breath as he runs down the long halls.

"Crap, they've cut me out of the system. You guys better be close to the exit!" Dot's voice says, cutting in to Craig's thoughts.

He still needed to tell the others about Chase, but first he needed to focus on getting out of there. As he looks down the hall that he had come from when entering the building, he sees a bunch of guards now running towards him from that direction.

"Halt!" one of them shouts and raises their gun.

Craig takes a sharp turn around the nearest corner, just as they open fire at him. "Well can't go back the way we came from," Craig says in to the ear piece.

"What, why?" one of them asks.

"Too many guards," Craig says, "looks like I'll have to make my own exit. Dot were you able to memorize any rooms on this level that connected directly to the outside?"

"The outside? What do you mean?" Dot asks.

"Like any rooms that had windows in them," Craig explains.

"Oh yeah, I remember seeing a few at the far end side. They should be to the left where you guys came in from, at the very end. There should be some rooms with windows there, connecting to the flat side of the mountain."

Craig quickly realizes that's the current direction his taking, "Okay."

He turns left and sees a hall with doors on one side, all of which he guesses are the rooms with windows in them. He reaches one of them and sees that he needs a keycard to enter it.

"Stop!" a voice orders.

When Craig looks up, he sees a bunch of guards running towards them with guns raised. He swears to himself internally and looks back to the door. He tries to focus his gaze on it, but doesn't think he'll have enough time to bust it down. Just then, the light on the key lock turns green and the door slides open. Craig looks at the doorway confused for a split second, before he hears more shouts and rushes into the room. As soon as he enters it, the door quickly slides shut behind him locking it's self.

A few seconds later, he hears banging coming from the other side of it. Most likely being from the guards. Quickly he looks around the room, noticing chairs, tables and a board in it. The set up of it like that of a meeting room. Craig looks over at the far side of the room that the windows are on and rushes over to them.

"Exactly how do you plan on getting you all out of there sparky?" Dot asks.

"Like I said..." Craig replies as his eyes begin to glow, "I'll make an exit," he tightens his hold around Kenny, " You might want to look away Kenny, it's going to be bright."

With that, Kenny faces away from Craig, pushing his face into Craig's shoulder instead. The glowing in Craig's eyes intensify and suddenly a big beam of sparks shoot out of them, hitting the window they're in front of. The sparks go right through the window and cause it to shatter down all at once. The glow in Craig's eyes start to dim down as the sparks fade away.

He goes over the the edge of the window frame and looks down it. At the bottom he sees it drops off in to the small lake. The bangs on the door continue, seeming to grow more loud.

"Hold on as tight as you can to me," Craig says to Kenny while tightening his own grip on him.

Kenny does the best he can to hold onto Craig with his one good arm. Craig takes a few steps back from the edge and then takes in a deep breath before running forward and jumping off from it. And just as soon as he's falling, he comes into contact with the water, crashing hard into it. He surfaces with a gasp, cool air now filling his lungs. And he tries his best to swim over to the shore, while still holding onto Kenny with one arm. When he eventually does reach the shore, he heaves himself up along with Kenny and rushes off into the nearby woods. He keeps on going until he hears a familiar voice call out to him. When he looks over to it, he sees two people from the group there. They rush towards him.

"Boy, you sure weren't kidding about that exit," a boy with short brown hair and a nasally voice, says.

Craig yanks off his black mask with one hand, to make it easier for him to breath, "Less talking, more moving."

"Good point," the boy with brown hair agrees then notices Kenny, "is that...Kenny?"

"Yes," Craig answers.

The brown haired boy's eyes widen, "Holy shit, what-"

"We can talk about this later," Craig cuts him off.

"Wait, where's Chase?" the other one, who was a boy with short black hair asks.

A silence falls as the other two look at Craig for the answer.

"Craig?" the browned hair one asks.

Craig averts his gaze, "He didn't make it," he finally says.

"W-What?!" the browned haired one exclaims.

"What happened?" the other asks.

"He got shot," Craig says, "he died in the elevator when we were escaping."

Just as a silence starts to set in, the remaining two of the small group show up.

"Hey, what are you guys still doing here? We need to go," the female one, Dot says.

"Where is Chase?" the last one of the group, with very short curly black hair asks. But no one replies, "Guys?"

"Why is everyone so quiet?" Dot asks arching a brow.

"He didn't make it," Craig says.

"What?" both Dot and the short curly haired one say in unison, shocked.

"He got shot," the short blacked haired one adds.

"Seriously?" Dot says in disbelief, "I-"

She gets cut off when shouts are heard in the nearby distance. Drawing everyone's attention to them.

"Look, we can't stay here- I'll tell you guys what happened when we make it back to the hideout okay?!" Craig quickly says, "Let's go!" and he heads off, the others also following after him deep into the woods.

* * *

 **A/N: There will be some OC's that will be appearing in the story from this point onwards, but they will only be playing some minor parts in it. Also I know that this chapter starts off with a big timeskip and there are probably a lot of questions as to what happened. Don't worry, I promise that they will get answered in the following chapters.**

 **(Random side note: Last chapter was the end of what I like to call the 'Youth Arc', and this chapter is start of what I also like to call the 'Older Arc'.)**

 **Edit: I know that this chapter is going to throw some people off… But there is a reason why it happens and why I chose to go this route in the story. This was something that I _REALLY_ had to think about _A LOT_ when writing this part. And I know not everyone will like it, but I chose what I felt was right for this story.**


	14. Chapter 14

Later, in an old worn out looking house, that was far beyond it's time. Lie Kenny in a room sleeping, having passed out while being carried there. He lies on an old forgotten bed that was left behind by who ever owned the house previously, along with many other various furniture pieces that seemed to be left there as well. All of it, old and worn, much past their prime.

The bed he lie in however, had newer sheets placed on it for him. And the room it's self was sparse, only having the bed, an old dresser, a small closet, a window with blinds, which had some missing and a small nightstand next to the bed.

Kenny wasn't alone in the room right now though, there were two others also there. They were keeping an eye on him to make sure he was doing alright. A few seconds go by and Craig walks into the room, now dressed in different dry clothing, and goes to stand next to the bed.

"Man, I still can't believe it's actually him," the boy with short brown hair says.

"Yeah..." the boy with short black hair nods a bit.

"Stan, how do you think he is even still alive?" the brown haired one asks the other.

"I don't know," Stan says quietly.

"He's all cut up in to bits and stuff."

"Yeah..." Stan trails off.

"They even cut off his dick and stuff," the brown haired one states.

"Clyde! Dude!" Stan exclaims.

"What?"

"That's fucked up!"

"I know it is!"

Craig turns and glares at the two of them, "Can you two leave," it's not a question, he was telling them to get out because they were starting to get on his nerves with their conversation.

They both take a step back, when they think they see a hint of a spark glint in Craig's eye.

"H-Hey Clyde, let's go and see how Dot and Token are holding up okay?" Stan says a bit nervously.

"Y-Yeah, okay," Clyde agrees just as nervous, and they both leave the room.

Craig looks back at Kenny and sits down on the side of the bed. He places a hand gently on Kenny's cheek and lightly runs his thumb over the stitching on his face. A mixed look of anger and sadness crosses his face because of them. Kenny slowly opens his non-stitched eye and looks over at Craig.

"Hey," Craig smiles at him.

Kenny glances around the room, "Where... are we?" he asks, his voice still very tried and hoarse sounding.

"We're at a temporary hideout with some others I know," Craig replies.

Kenny glances back at him, "... Craig, I need to ask you to do something for me but... you probably won't like it," he says stoically.

Craig removes his hand from Kenny's cheek, "What is it?" he asks sounding a bit uncertain.

"I... need you to kill me."

Craig's eyes go wide, "W-What?" disbelief heavy in his tone.

Kenny's expression remains stoic like his tone,"It's the fastest way for me to regenerate and-"

"No!" Craig cuts him off, "I just got you back, and you want me to kill you?!"

"Craig I-"

"No!" Craig repeats, "How can you ask me to do that to you?!" he looks down, "I could never do such a horrible thing to you..." his voice is quiet now.

"Sorry..." Kenny says, his gaze falls onto the nightstand for a moment before he looks up at the ceiling, "I think... that I'm going to try and get some more rest."

Craig looks back at him and nods, "Alright..." he says and gets up, then heads for the door, "I'll see you a bit later then."

Even though Craig had wanted to stay with him a bit more, he knew that Kenny getting some rest was the best option for now, and he also still needed to talk with everyone else. So with that in mind, he leaves the room and makes his way down the hall.

When Craig enters into the living room area of the house, everyone looks at him. The air around him, suddenly feeling very heavy. And a long silence sets in.

"So..." the one with the very short curly black hair, Token, starts, "now that we're all here, are you going to tell us what happened back there?"

Craig pauses for a moment then walks closer to the center of the room, "Right..." he sighs, knowing just how hard this was going to be for them to hear.

When he finishes explaining everything a short while later, there's another very long silence. The air was thick with mixed feelings and emotions from them all.

"I see..." Stan says, finally breaking the silence.

"Well, he knew the dangers going in there," Dot sighs and lifts a hand up, covering her face while shaking her head a bit, "goddammit, I told him he'd get himself killed somehow."

"None of us knew how this was going to turn out. We can't predict the future," Stan tells her.

"Whatever..." Dot says and looks back down at the small laptop she has opened, going back to typing something.

Stan looks at everyone else, "We need to plan what to do next. We can't stay here for much longer, I'm sure that they are already out looking for us."

"I'm already way a head of you guys," Dot says, still typing away, "there's a small town to the north of here, that should be a good place to go. It's pretty far away from any big cities, so we should be safe there from most cameras and such."

"Oh, okay cool," Stan says.

"It's quite a walk to get there though," Dot adds.

"How far?" Clyde asks.

"About twenty miles," Dot answers.

"Dang," Token says.

"Yup, so we better start packing up now so we can get a move on. We'll use the cover of dark to our advantage, while we still can," Dot says.

"Alright," Stan nods.

"But what about Kenny?" Clyde asks, "He's not exactly in walking condition."

"He can regenerate limbs, he just needs some time to heal," Craig says.

"Oh right, the regeneration thing you mentioned before..." Clyde trails off.

"Well he better start regenerating fast, because we can't stay here much longer," Dot tells Craig, and he scowls somewhat at her, "anyways, everybody start packing what you need so we can be ready to go."

With that, everyone goes about packing any supplies that may be left lying around. Craig walks over to an old table that has a small set of water bottles placed on it and grabs one. He was concerned about Kenny, and just how fast how could regenerate. He knew that Kenny wasn't in any condition to walk, but even so, if Kenny couldn't walk when they needed to go, he would just carry him until he could again. Because there was no way in hell, that he would ever leave him again. The water bottle in Craig's hand makes a slight sound as his hand unconsciously squeezes it.

"Hey Clyde," Token says, "where is that small knife?"

"Huh?" Clyde responds a bit confused.

"You know, the small knife we use to open up cans and stuff," Token explains, holding up a small can in his hand.

"Oh!" Clyde exclaims recalling it, "Uh, I think I left it on the nightstand in the room Kenny's in," he tells Token, and Craig immediately looks at over at them.

"Why is it there?" Token asks arching a brow.

"We needed to remove the wet jacket that was on Kenny, so he wouldn't get sick or something. But the zipper was stuck, so I used the knife to tear it open," Clyde explains.

Suddenly the water bottle in Craig's hand is falling to the floor, when it makes contact with it, everyone looks over at him. But he doesn't care about that, he's too busy rushing out of the room by this point and heading down the hall.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Craig swears to himself as he rushes back to Kenny's room.

When he reaches the room's door, his hand hesitates for a moment, hovering over the doorknob. A part of him being afraid of the thought at the back of his mind being right. But he tries to ignore the thought and opens the door. However, when his gaze lands on the bed he freezes instantly. There on the bed, is Kenny with the small knife in his throat.

"K-Kenny?" Craig says quietly as he approaches the bed.

He stares at the other's now completely motionless body. And a dread starts to quickly form in him. He reaches a shaky hand around the small knife handle and pulls it out. He stares at it and a feeling of surrealness takes over. He didn't want to believe the blood on the dagger or Kenny's throat was real, that none of this was all real.

"Hey, open your eyes," Craig says quietly. "H-Hey come on, this isn't funny," he didn't want to believe it, "open your eyes _god dammit_!" and he can't help it, an awful stinging feeling makes it's self known in his eyes, "You can't do this to me!" he kneels down onto the floor, "I just got you back," and buries his face into the sheets, "you can't do this..."

Something catches the corner of his vision and he looks up at it. A faint glow starts to appear around Kenny's body. He stares at the strange light before him, confused. He then notices the wound on Kenny's throat from the knife starts to gradually close up. He stares at it a bit longer, and remembers Kenny's words to him about how he needed to die in order to regenerate the fastest.

This had been the first time he had ever seen Kenny's regenerative power actually happen right in front of him. Before that, he had only been told about it when they were kids, so he could only go based off of his word. But now that he was seeing it, seeing how the wounds all over his body began to slowly close and heal up, a wave of relief washes over him. He lies his head down and closes his eyes. Suddenly feeling very tired.

 **…**

Craig finds himself walking in a dark place. He comes to a stop and looks around. When he looks down, something catches his eye from above him and he looks back up. There Kenny is floating in the air in front of him. He's young again, a kid, and wearing the clothes from when they were in that room together.

"Kenny!" Craig shouts. The other boy looks up at him and smiles a bit. Craig quickly reaches out to him, "Ken-" he stops when he realizes that he's also a kid again, and is wearing the same clothes from before too.

Then the ground beneath him starts to turn a deep red. He looks back up at Kenny who smiles even bigger now, and small cuts start to appear around his mouth from it.

"Kenny!" Craig shouts again, and goes to run towards him, but the ground beneath him gives way and he begins to sink, "Kenny!" he continues to try and reach him, but he can't, "Kenny!" he does all he can but the other boy only smiles more wider and more cuts appear on his face because of it. Slowly they all spread across his body, splitting open the surface of his flesh and causing trickles of blood to stream down as they do so. And Craig can't do anything to stop it as the bloody ground beneath him gradually keeps consuming him whole, "Ken-" he gets cuts off when the blood goes over his head.

He feels the thick red liquid enter into his mouth, eyes and nose, surrounding and swallowing him whole. He struggles to breathe, but he can't because there's so much. So much that he's drowning in it all. And he wonders why there's so much of it and where it all came from. As he begins to lose consciousness a small thought pops up in the back of his mind, one telling him that it's Kenny's. His eyes close after that and he feels himself drifting deeper and deeper into the bloody abyss.

 **…**

Craig's eyes shoot wide open as he gasps for air. He sits up fast, and takes in deep breaths.

"You're awake," a voice says.

When Craig looks over at the bed, he sees Kenny sitting up in it, long blond hair now covering most of his face, "Kenny?" he says, still calming down from the dream he had. He takes note however, of all of the scars, cuts and stitching being gone. "You're all healed up..." and it's then does he notice that Kenny's arm is back and he figures that his legs are probably back as well under the sheets.

"Yeah," Kenny responds.

Craig's expression shows a brief moment of relief before quickly changing to anger, "When I saw you lying here, dead, do you have any idea how that made me feel seeing you like that?!"

Kenny's face doesn't change and remains as stoic as it was before,"I can't die though, I told you that before-"

"It doesn't matter!" Craig shouts cutting him off, "Seeing you like that... was awful," the faint outlines of pain start to emerge in his features.

Kenny's eyes looks away, "Sorry, I was hoping you wouldn't come in and see that."

Craig glances down at the bloody knife on the sheets next to his hand, "But..." he says calmly, "I'm glad you're all healed up now," and he looks back up at him, "I just hope, I never have to see you like that again," Kenny doesn't reply to that and Craig examines him, trying to see if he would show anything, but the long hair was making that hard to do so. "Your hair grew out too?" he wonders out loud.

"Yes, it seems to grow whenever I regenerate. Usually I find the more I need to regenerate or heal, the longer it gets," Kenny explains.

Craig stares at it, and thinks back to how bad of a shape Kenny was in before. Realizing how much he probably needed to regenerate in order for it to have grown out so much. A small frown crosses his face at the thought of that.

"Why..." Kenny says, causing Craig to break away from his thoughts, "did you come back for me?"

Craig's eyes widen at the question, "Are you serious?" a look of disbelief crosses his face, "Are you seriously asking me that? Do you not understand, how important you are to me?" and he can't help but feel a tinge of pain in his chest, "Of course I'd go back for you..." he trails off.

Kenny silently watches him, and Craig can't help but look off elsewhere.

"What happened?" Kenny asks.

"Huh?" Craig says confused.

"All the time that has passed by, what have you been up to?" Kenny adds.

"Oh, um..."

Just as Craig is about to answer him, there's a knock on the door. It opens a second later and Stan is there.

"Hey, everyone is ready to go. Just letting you know," Stan says.

He spots Kenny and looks surprised at first, from what Craig guesses is because he's all healed up, then smiles a bit at him and leaves closing the door.

Craig looks back at Kenny, "I'll tell you about it later."

Kenny looks down for a moment, then lifts up the sheet over him and gets out of the bed. He stands up facing towards Craig, whose eyes can't help but be drawn to the thick appendage that is hanging almost four feet away from his face now. He probably stares at it longer than he should, because when he glances up at Kenny, he is looking down at him. Craig hurriedly looks away and gets up.

"R-Right- clothes!" Craig says quickly and turns, walking over to a black duffle bag on the floor. He unzips it and searches through it until he finds a pullover sweater, some jogging pants and a pair of running shoes. He places them on the dresser, "Here, some clothes for you to wear. I'll uh, wait outside the room until you're dressed."

With that, Craig exits the room, his hand still lingering on the doorknob even after it's shut. He briefly thinks of how everything did really seem to regenerate after all. He let's go of the knob when the faint burning in his cheeks starts to die down more and moves to wait across the hall.

Around five to ten minutes later, the door opens and Kenny walks out dressed, and Craig wonders if the clothes will be enough to keep him warm or not. He was only able to gather those clothes for him, because it was all that they had with them for now. But he figured that it was still better than nothing.

"You're done," Craig says and walks past him into the room, "alright, I'm just going to pack up the sheets and stuff, and then we can go and join the others."

 **…**

Meanwhile in the main living room area of the house, the rest of the group waits.

"Where is he?" Dot says impatiently.

"I'm sure he's on his way. He's probably just finishing up packing," Stan says.

"You did tell him that we're all ready to go right? And how urgent the situation is right?" Dot asks.

"I told him we're all ready to go," Stan replies.

"Ugh, what is taking him so long?" Dot asks annoyed.

Not even a second later, Craig comes around the hall corner, entering into the living area with everyone else, wearing a backpack on his back and holding the duffle bag in his hand.

"Finally," dot says, "what was taking you so lo-"

Dot stops when she sees Kenny come around the corner. The whole room goes quiet as they all stare at him, both stunned and surprised.

"His limbs are back..." Token says.

"Holy shit," Clyde says still stunned, "They actually grew back! I mean, I had my doubts a bit but, they actually grew back!" he points then, "He even has hair now!"

Everyone continues to stare at him amazed by the fact that he was fully healed and standing right before them. Stan though, smiles a bit having already known about this and also somewhat because of the others reactions to it.

Craig starts to feel a bit awkward just standing there and coughs, "We're ready to go," he says.

"Oh, right," Dot says snapping out of it, "let's get going then, now that we're all here," and she starts walking out of the room, "move out!"

As the others start leaving the room, following Dot's lead, they still stare somewhat amazed at Kenny and his current appearance now. When Stan passes by though, he smiles at Kenny again and Kenny watches him go by.

As everyone steps back out into the darkness once again, they take out their flashlights. Craig looks back at the house's front door as Kenny exits through it. Him being the last one to leave the old building. He walks down the front steps and stops when he reaches the grass, closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath.

"Kenny?" Craig asks.

Kenny opens his eyes, "It's been so long..." he says, "so long since I've breathed air from the outside like this that I've almost forgotten it. Forgotten what this feels like," his expression stays stoic, but Craig can sense there's a sadness hidden behind those words somewhere.

He feels a tinge of pain in his chest, knowing what the other had meant by that. Kenny hadn't been outside for years, he had been most likely locked up in that room Craig found him in for all that time. This was probably the first time in such a long time that Kenny was able to walk around free of his own will outside. Craig also knew that because of that place, Kenny was so different now, and he couldn't help but feel a bit angry at himself as thoughts and memories rise in the back of his mind. He looks at Kenny, then pulls the duffle bag in his hand over his shoulder and extends his hand to him.

"Come on, let's go," Craig says softly.

Kenny looks at his hand for a few moments then slowly puts his own hand into Craig's and stands next to him. Craig smiles faintly as a nostalgic feeling comes back, then looks forward and shines the flashlight he's holding in his other hand in front of them. The two of them gradually make their way over to the moving group and join back up with them, as they head deeper into the woods.


	15. Chapter 15

Quite some time passes and the sun begins making it's self know, as the sky began to turn a shade of pink and flickers of sunlight shone through the clouds on the horizon. Everybody in the small group, was beginning to feel the effects of sleep deprivation wear on them.

"Can we take a break? I'm getting tired," Clyde groans.

"Same," Token agrees.

Dot stops and looks around at everyone, seeing how tired they are, "I guess so," she sighs, " I could also use some rest too. And we should be a good enough distance now I think. Let's go and set up over there," she directs, pointing at a spot nearby.

Everyone heads over to it and sets down all their bags. Tired sighs coming from some of them.

"We rest for six hours then move out again, got it?" Dot instructs. And everyone agrees except for Clyde who is now lying down with his bag under his head. "You got that Clyde?" she asks, making sure he heard it, "Clyde?" she repeats.

"He's passed out," Token say looking at him.

Dot sighs, "Well, someone wake him up when it's time go then," she sets down her bag and takes out a sleeping bag.

"You're not going to rest?" Kenny asks Craig, who only then realizes that he has yet to move.

"Oh, right, I am just..." Craig looks at their hands still holding on to one another, "I'll set up now..." and he let's go of Kenny's hand.

He kneels down and opens up his bag, taking out a sheet. He then takes out a small cushion size pillow and a small blanket. He set's the blanket next to the sheet and places the pillow on it, then places the backpack he had on onto the sheet, deciding that he would sleep there and Kenny could have the other spot.

"I'll be right here," Craig says lying down, then turns over to his side.

Kenny sits down onto the blanket next to him and looks at his back for a moment, before he also lies down. Soon after, everyone in the group starts to drift off in to a lull sleep.

Later, when Craig starts to wake from sleep, after having yet another bad dream, he hears voices talking.

"D'awww, but look at them."

"Dude, leave them alone."

When Craig opens his eyes, he his greeted with the sight of Clyde grinning widely at him.

"Good morning lovebird," Clyde singsongs.

Craig gives an annoyed look,"What are you-" he goes to sit up, but feels something around his waist. When he looks down, he sees that it's Kenny with an arm wrapped around him.

Clyde snickers, "How cute," Craig looks back up him and glares. For a moment it catches Clyde off guard but another smile slowly spreads across his face, "Are you... blushing?" he says in a teasing tone.

And if Craig's face hadn't have been red before, it surely was now, "Get away from us, before I bore a hole through your skull," he tells him.

"Us?" Clyde grins widely again.

The shade on Craig's face deepens, "I swear to god I will-"

"What?" Clyde muses, "Hit me with your love beam?" he laughs and at that, Craig can feel the warmth of light starting to form in his eyes.

"Dude!" Stan shouts, "Get over here and help us finish packing!"

Clyde turns towards him, "I know, I know, jeez, it was just some harmless fun," and with that he walks over to the others.

Craig continues to glare at him as he walks away, "Jackass," he mutters. He looks down at Kenny and his expression softens as he places a hand on his shoulder, and shakes him lightly, "Kenny? It's time to get going."

Kenny's eyes open and he glances up at Craig before he moves to sit up right. After which, Craig starts to pack everything up. Soon after that, the group finds themselves on the move again.

A bit later on, as they all walk through the woods, next to a small stream. Craig and Kenny find themselves walking some feet back from the rest of the group. Craig taking notice of how Kenny seemed to be looking at everything around them, and he smiles a bit to himself because of it.

"There's a lot of trees aren't there?" Craig asks him.

"Yes," Kenny says, "and so many different scents too."

"Like what?" Craig asks curiously.

"The grass, the water, the trees," Kenny replies.

Craig smiles a bit, "Any scents you like the most since being out of that place?"

Kenny stops, causing Craig to stop as well and give a questioning look.

Kenny then looks at him, "Yours," he replies.

"Huh?" Craig says confused.

Kenny takes a few steps towards him, and stops when he's standing in front of him, "I like your scent."

"Uh- um, o-okay," Craig stutters out, not really sure on how to reply to that.

He was also a bit confused by what Kenny had meant by that. Did he really have a scent to him? Because if so, he wasn't aware of it. He also wondered how Kenny would know exactly what his scent was. As he thinks about it, an image from a bit earlier on that day flashes through his mind. One of Kenny sleeping right next to him. Soon enough, Craig found his face starting to burn again.

"Can I..." Kenny trails off.

Craig notices him looking down at his hand, "You want to hold it again?" he asks and lifts his hand up.

Kenny takes it in his and the two begin walking forward again.

"Can you tell me what happened now?" Kenny asks.

"What happened?" Craig repeats.

"For all the time that has passed you by," Kenny answers.

"Oh," Craig says realizing what he meant, "I uh, let's see..." and he begins to tell the other what had happened to him during all of those years gone by.

 **…**

 _ **Six Years Ago**_

A young, scared and frightened Craig, finds himself sitting huddled up in an alleyway. Taking shelter from the cold rain, in a stony doorway frame. He had managed to find his way out of the woods, and into a city, but had no idea on where to go. He was too afraid to turn to anyone for help. He couldn't trust someone not to turn him in. So he ended up keeping to himself, and getting plenty of side-eye glances from strangers because of the tattered clothes he wore. When it had started to pour he ran down a side alley and found shelter where he now currently was.

Through the heavy rain drops that made contact with the cement ground, he could hear what sounded like arguing and something smashing nearby. When he looked up, he saw a small group of men, all wearing suites that had stopped on the sidewalk just outside the alley. One of them, holding up another by the collar.

"What do you mean you can't?! What am I supposed to do now?! Huh?! Huuuuh?!" the man yells at the one he's holding by the collar.

"I-I'm sorry, I'll find another one I swear!" the one being held up says.

"Find another one?! Ha! Don't make me laugh! It's not like we can just go to a store and pick one out to buy!"

Craig draws his knees closer to himself. For some reason the conversation they were having gave him an awful feeling about something. The man being held up by the collar, glances to the side, down the alley Craig was in. His expression changes slightly as he spots him and Craig instantly tenses up. The man looks back forward again and says something to the others. Whatever he says though, is much to low for Craig to hear it from where he was, the rain was drowning it out now. A couple of seconds later they all look at Craig and a sudden rush of fear takes over. The man being held up, is let go of as the other one now turns and starts to walk towards Craig, the other men all following behind. Craig's heart pounded faster with each step those men took towards him. He didn't know why they were coming towards him, but he knew that what ever it was for, it surely wasn't good. And in the next second he's up on his feet, running further down into the alley.

"Hey!" one of them yells.

Craig runs all the way down the alley, until he comes to a dead end. Placing his hands on the wall, as in disbelief that it's there stopping him.

"Hey kid," a deep voice says and Craig quickly turns around, "do you need a place to go? Because if so, we got a place for you," the man slowly makes his way towards him.

Craig presses his back against the wall, trying to put as much distance between him and the men as possible. They may not have been the same ones that were chasing him before, but he could tell that they were probably just as bad as them.

"No, I'm fine," Craig says.

The man smirks, "Come now, no need to be shy," as he reaches Craig, he moves his hand forward and grabs a hold of Craig's wrist.

"Let me go!" Craig yells and tries to pull out of the mans grasp. But the man only pulls him forward, and vivid flashbacks rush through his mind, "No!"

"Come on kid. We'll make sure you're treated with care," the man with the deep voice says.

"Don't touch me!"

The man then grabs the front of Craig's shirt with the other hand, "Come now, don't make this difficult," he threatens.

Craig continues to struggle, doing anything he can to get away. He didn't know why this was happening to him, he had just gotten away from bad people and now there were more of them trying to take him somewhere. He didn't understand why people were like this, or how they could be so cruel. All he wanted to do was get away from them. Get away and be free. Free with Kenny. But he knew that wouldn't be the case anymore, because Kenny was gone and Craig was all on his own now. No one was going to save him from people like this now. Nobody. Craig's mind swirled with a mixture of strong feelings, the most prominent one being fear. And it suddenly felt like the world around his was caving in, like everything was slowly crushing him, and without even noticing it his eyes had begun to glow and little flickers of sparks played at the corners of them.

"What the-" the man says taken aback.

"Get away from me!" Craig screams.

Suddenly everything goes bright, a blinding hot light flashes throughout the alleyway. And just as fast as it appeared it was gone. When Craig had been able to see clearly again, he felt dizzy but he could see that all the men that were surrounding him before, were all now missing the upper halves of their bodies. He didn't quite know why that was in his dizzy state of mind, all he knew was that they were dead now. The rain now washing away what remains left of them. As Craig struggles to keep himself conscious, he can vaguely make out the silhouette of a figure at the other end of the alleyway, now slowly walking towards him. A part of him worries that it's more of those men, but he doesn't have enough energy to move anymore.

"Stay away..." Craig says weakly before his vision blacks out and he falls to the ground.

When Craig eventually comes to, he find himself looking at a ceiling. When he looks around, he can see that he's now in a room, lying on a bed. He wonders what this place is and sluggishly sits up, a small wash cloth falls from his head as he does. He looks down at it curiously before hearing something creak. When he looks at it's source, a door, he sees nothing there. He looks back down again and places his fingers on his temple, his head had begun to throb a bit. He tried to recall what had happened last before he passed out. He had remembered the alleyway, the men, a bright light and then- his thoughts are interrupted when the door opens. A man with dark brown hair walks in and Craig immediately tenses up.

"No need to be afraid," the mans says, "I'm not going to hurt you, I came to see how you're doing now that your fever has broke," Craig just eyes the man suspiciously. "When I found you passed out, you were burning up. So I brought you to my home in order to help you recover. I just found out you had woken up now, when Olivia came and told me," he finishes explaining.

Craig gives a slightly confused look at the name, but then sees a small figure standing at the doorway behind the man. It was a young girl with blue-greenish eyes and dark brown braided hair, that had small ribbons in it, she looked younger than Craig. She was leaning from the side of the door frame, peering into the room at him.

The man looks back at her, "Olivia is my daughter," he says and the girl suddenly disappears from the doorway and back into the hall, "she's... a bit shy," he chuckles.

Craig feels himself become a little less tense for some reason, maybe it was from seeing another child there, he wasn't sure.

"...Why did you help me?" Craig asks wearily.

The man looks back at him, "Because I wanted to," Craig gives a questioning look, "because you needed it. And because you're just a kid." he adds, "A kid shouldn't be out alone on the streets, it's not safe, especially at night," Craig just stares at the man, not really sure what to make of him, "If you're hungry, there's some left over dinner we have in the kitchen," the man tells him as he starts heading out of the room, "you must be quite hungry, you were out for two days," with that he leaves the room.

Craig just sits there, not really sure what to make of the whole situation or what he should do next. Eventually some time later, he decides to leave the room and look around. When he leaves the room there's a long hall and doors on either side of it. One end leading to a door and the other leading in to a living or dining area of some kind. When he walks down it and comes to it's end, he can see that the kitchen is just to the left of him and the living room area is just a head of him now. He walks into the kitchen and can see right in to the living room, only a semi wall was keeping the two rooms apart. He could also see that the man and young girl were in it, watching T.V, a cartoon of some sort. When Craig looks around the kitchen, he spots a plate of food on the counter wrapped up. He walks over to it and looks at it.

"You might need to heat it up," the mans voice suddenly says. Craig instinctively takes a step back, and looks up to see the man now standing in the kitchen's doorway, "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Craig just eyes the man before looking back at the plate of food, "Why don't you go take a seat? I'll heat it up for you," Craig gives another weary look at the man, "it's okay," the man smiles a bit.

Craig cautiously looks over at the small kitchen table and makes his way to it. He takes a seat facing towards the man and continues to watch him. The man takes the plat of food and puts it into a microwave, turning it on. It begins to hum when the light in it turns on and the food starts to rotate in it. The man then turns around to look at Craig again.

"By the way, what is your name?" he asks, but Craig remains silent, "Hmmm... what about where you live? I could drop you off at home? Or family? Anyone I can call or contact for you? A mom or dad?" Craig continues to remain silent, now looking down at the table and avoiding eye contact, "What about a friend? Is there a close friend I can contact for you?"

Craig's eyes widen a bit as an image of Kenny suddenly flashes through his mind. He can feel the faint beginnings of tears starting to sting at his eyes because of it. The man looks ready to say something about it, when the microwave beeps, drawing his attention to it. He turns back around to it, opens it and sets the plate down, along with a fork, in front of Craig.

"My name is Liam by the way," the man says taking a seat opposite to Craig. Craig looks at the food, not touching it, only looking, "What's wrong? Don't like that kind of food?"

Craig looks at the plate, examining all the contents of food that were on it. There were peas, chicken and mash potatoes. He had wondered how long it had been since he actually saw real food, or even smelt it. Just how much time had he been in that horrible place for? He then takes a small forkful of mash potatoes and places it in his mouth. The moment it touches his tongue, his tears begin to fall. He had almost forgotten what real food tasted like. He knew that food tasted good, but he had no idea just how good until he took that first bite. The way he was treated before, they only gave some kind of nutriment serum that was injected right in to him, so that he wouldn't die. It had taken away his need to eat anything, so that gave more reason for him to be locked up.

The man just watched Craig silently as tears continuously trickled down the young boy's face, "You can stay here till you feel better if you want to but.. I will need to at least know your name. I don't want to call you, 'boy, you there', or 'you'," he tells him.

Craig pauses for awhile thinking it over, eventually after a couple minutes, he looks up at the older man, "Craig..." he says quietly, "my name is Craig."

A couple days pass by and for some reason, Craig decides to stay there while he tries and think of what he should do next. He wanted so badly to go back and get Kenny somehow, but he had no idea as to how to do it, so he thought about staying until he could come up with some sort of plan on what to do. He still didn't quite trust Liam by any means, but he knew that he wasn't like the other people he had been around before. He didn't pry too much about where Craig had come from, or what he had done before. And he didn't call anyone to ask about him. In a strange way, it was almost like Liam had understood that there was something that the young boy just couldn't talk about, so he let him be. Craig had also found out shortly after seeing the date, that about six months had gone by since he was taken away from the orphanage and put in that awful place, before escaping. Of course to him, they felt more like years.

When Craig walks into the living, Liam is watching the news. It's talking about something that quickly catches his attention.

"-As for the forest fire that happened three nights ago, it is still not yet known what caused it. Just that it suddenly happened and people saw smoke from miles away one late evening. When we had got to the scene of where the fire originated from, there was nothing but brunt remains of trees everywhere. The matter of it, is continuing to be looked in to. And in other news..."

Craig's mind tunes out the rest of whatever the news anchor was saying when he realizes where that fire was. There was no doubt in his mind, he had recognized the wide open clearing and big rift that went through it, when the camera had zoomed out in to a wide shot from above. Which only meant that the core of the fire, was where that building had stood before. But nothing of it remained anymore. Almost like it had burned away from existence. He had wonder how that was possible, how it could all just vanish like that. While most would probably be glad that nothing was left of that awful place in Craig's shoes. He wasn't, he wasn't because now he had no idea what happened to Kenny. He didn't know if he had also been burned alive, or if he was taken somewhere else. He also wondered how it started, was it because of their break out? Or something else? He didn't know.

Liam looks over to the side, just only now noticing Craig, "Oh Craig, are you done with the shower?" he asks, but Craig just continues to stare at the T.V, "Craig?" he asks again when there's no response. That time though, Craig looks over at him, being pulled from his thoughts, "Are you okay?" Liam arches an eye brow slightly at him.

"Yes, I was lost in thought" Craig says.

Liam looks at him for a few seconds, "Are you done with your shower?"

"Yes," is all Craig replies with.

"Alright," Liam says getting up, "I'll be taking mine now then," and he walks past Craig and down the hall.

When Liam enters into the bathroom and shuts the door, Craig walks over to the couch and he brings his knees up to his chest and pulls the very big over-sized shirt he was wearing over them. He rests his forehead against them and shuts his eyes. He didn't want to believe that Kenny was gone, he couldn't. But he didn't know just how far Kenny's regenerating factor could go. If he had been burned alive whole, would he die that way, he didn't know. He tightened his hold around his legs, he didn't want to think about it.

When nighttime came again, Craig found himself lying wide awake in the guest bed. He couldn't sleep no matter how much he tried, his thoughts were still swimming with the information he had taken in earlier that day. He couldn't help but wonder about what happened to Kenny. His plans on going back to that place were no longer an option, it no longer existed. He wondered why they would've burned that place to the ground. Part of him felt like, they couldn't so easily have just gotten rid of everything. He knew that those people seemed far to thrilled with doing their experiments to just get rid of it all. He thought that maybe, it was to cover their tracks, and maybe only the building was burned down, and that, any others like him were taken away somewhere else. He had hoped that was the case, because he didn't want to think of the alternative.

But somewhere deep down, he knew that the other still had to be out there somewhere. He knew that he had to be alive still, and that he was with those awful people. He could just feel it inside of him. And he couldn't let himself give up hope so easily. He knew that he just had to still be around somewhere, and that he would find him somehow. But he had no idea where to start, or where Kenny could possibly even be now. For all he knew, those people could've taken him to another country by now. He had no idea where to even start looking for him. He wanted to find him, but he had literally nothing to go on to do so. And also with his current strength, even if he did find them, he knew that he wouldn't stand a chance. He would need to do something more, but he wasn't sure how to.

With a sigh, he sits up and heads out of bed. Needing to get some water.

As he exits the room, he spots a light that's on down the hall. The door at the end of the hall is opened slightly, allowing the room's light to spill out in to it. Craig cautiously approaches the room. He had yet to see what was inside of it, because Liam seemed to always keep it locked. As Craig reaches it, he slowly peers into the room. The first thing he notices, are all the books everywhere on shelves. Then he notices Liam sitting in an older fashioned chair at a desk, writing stuff down. As Craig leans a bit more into the door, it creaks and he tenses. However he doesn't see Liam look away from what ever it is he's busy with. Craig feels a bit relived although it doesn't last too long.

"Is there something you need?" Liam asks, still looking down at his desk.

Craig stays still for a good some seconds before finally deciding to just open the door and speak, "Sorry... I was going to get some water and saw a light on in here and got curious."

"I see, and has your curiosity now been fed?" Liam asks.

Craig feels a sense of awkwardness at having been caught and looks around the room, trying to get rid of it. His eyes land on some sort of medals and uniform that are hung up.

"What are those?" Craig asks.

Liam looks up to see what Craig is talking about, when he sees what the young boy is staring at, he reply's, "Medals."

"For what?"

"Service."

"Service?"

"I used to be a navy SEAL," Liam says.

"Navy SEAL?" Craig asks curiously.

Liam looks at him, "Like the army," he explains more simply.

"Oh..." Craig says sheepishly.

"Twenty years..." Liam says looking back at the uniform, "I served for twenty years. Before I had to leave and come back home to take care of Olivia," a sad and somewhat distant expression crosses his face then, "Her mother, my wife, had passed away from an illness. And there were no other relatives that could look after her while I was gone, so I came back. Leaving wasn't an easy task, but I wanted to come home and be here for her," a sad smile spreads on his face.

It goes quiet for a bit and Craig starts to feel a bit uneasy, like he's intruding on something he shouldn't all of the sudden. He tries then to change the topic a bit, to something less saddening.

"Um... did you have to do anything when you joined?" Craig asks.

"Hmmm?" Liam looks over at him.

"To be a navy SEAL, did you have to train and stuff?"

Liam nods, "Yes, very hard."

"Very hard? Why?"

"Because we needed to be strong, the missions we had to do required us to have a lot of strength. So we needed to train not just our minds, but bodies too," Liams explains.

Suddenly a thought pops in to Craig's head and before he's fully even aware of it, his mouth is moving, "Would you be able to train me?"

Liam looks at him, not having expected the young boy to ask something like that of him, "Are you planning on becoming one or something?" he muses.

"No, but I..." Craig's hands clench into fists, "I want to be stronger."

"Why?"

"There's someone... I want to protect," Craig says, his expression serious.

"Protect? What do you mean?" Liam asks arching a brow.

"There's someone, important to me that I want to help. But as I am now... I'm not strong enough." Craig clenches his fist so hard, that he shakes, "Please," he pleads, "I don't care how hard or intense the training would be on me! I just want to save him!"

Liam's dark blue eyes examine the boy, seeing a look of some kind of desperate determination on him. He could tell that the boy was serious about it. And a part of him had wanted to ask him more as to why, but as he recalls something from before, he thinks that some things might be better left unsaid for now. Eventually after examining him over for a good minute or two he looks down at his papers.

"Alright," Liam says, "Whatever is going on with you, I can tell it's something serious. So I'll help you out," He looks back up at Craig and puts his pen down, "But I'm telling you now, It won't be easy."

Craig gives a slow determined filled nod and Liam shakes his head a bit and tells him to go back to bed, because training will be starting first thing in the morning.

Craig had known that the training was indeed going to be hard, he just didn't realize how gruelingly hard that was. But he refused to give up, even when his muscles ached and throbbed with soreness, he didn't quit. He was determined to get stronger, and then find Kenny. During the time he wasn't training, he would try his best to find out any information that he could on where those people could be. Because if he found them, he knew he'd find Kenny, something just told him so. And he held on to that hope, that he would somehow, someway, find him again. Eventually time started to pass by pretty fast, as days turned from weeks, to months, to years. Liam had at some point offered Craig to work at shop he was in, saying that it might be a good idea to save up money if he was planning on going anywhere. So Craig took it. Eventually after about four years, it was time for Craig to move on and search other places. The waiting after so long had been extremely hard for him, but now that he was a bit older, taller, more trained, had some money saved up and along with a better knowledge on the world, he felt very ready to go out and continue his searching. He still had not found much on where Kenny could possibly be, it was hard to search for something from nothing, but he was ready to expand his searching to other places, having looked over and using every possible resource that he could already where he was.

"Are you really going?" Olivia asks.

"Yeah," Craig replies, and the young girl frowns.

"You're always welcomed here," Liam says.

"Thank you," Craig says, "...for everything."

Liam smiles.

"U-Um," Olivia mumbles, and Craig looks down at her, "I um... hope you find that important person that you're looking for."

Craig smiles a little, "Thanks, I hope so too."

"If you do find them, will you come and visit us sometime?" she asks.

"Sure," Craig tells her.

"Don't forget about all the stuff you've learned," Liam says.

"With the daily drills and how much you've repeated each home schooled lesson you've taught me, I don't think I can ever forget," Craig says.

Liam chuckles a bit, "And Craig," he says in a much more quiet voice, placing a hand on his shoulder, "I never mentioned this before, but... on the day that I found you, there was a bright flash of light. And well... I'm not to sure what exactly happened on that day four years ago to you but, whatever it was, Just be careful out there."

Craig nods his head, "I will."

Liam removes his hand from him and smiles again. Craig had a feeling that Liam always knew something had happened on the night he found him, but just never said anything about it till now. He was probably waiting for Craig to tell him his self, but Craig knew after some point that if he did, Liam and Olivia's lives may never be the same again, so he kept it to himself. He didn't want them to know the horrors he had seen or been through. No one should have to know those things. Craig pulls the strap of the backpack over his shoulder and turns to leave.

"Goodbye you two," Craig says and gives a small wave, "and thank you again."

"Take care," Liam says.

And just as Craig is about to leave, Olivia runs over and hugs him, "I'll miss you," she says.

Craig smiles and pats her head, "I will too."

After she let's go, he turns and continues on his way. Leaving behind the only other people who were ever nice to him. If Craig could've described what it might have felt like to have a family, he probably would've thought that those two were the closest that he ever came to having one. Even though they weren't blood related, Liam had taken good care of him, almost like he was a son to him and Olivia had looked up to him, almost like a younger sibling would to an older one. He was going to miss them. But he needed to find where the other person who he called home was. With one final glance back, he smiles thoughtfully to himself as he looks forward again, heading down the path he's chosen.

 **…**

 _ **Present Time**_

"I continued on my own, traveling till I ended up stumbling upon this group about five months later," Craig finishes explaining to Kenny, "I had found out that they knew about those people, and confirmed that they were still out there somewhere after all. So I decided to stay with them, hoping to find a lead. And eventually we did," he adds then looks at Kenny, "and we got you out."

"I see..." Kenny says and looks ahead, "and your powers?"

"When I was staying with Liam and Olivia I made sure to keep it under wraps, although hard at times, I managed somehow. But since traveling with this group, they've shown me ways to channel and use it. Because they also have them as well, having gone pretty much through the same things we did... being subjects and all," Craig explains, "they escaped all those years ago. The same day we did, when all the doors opened, they managed to get out," he looks at Kenny, "you pretty much freed them that day."

There's a brief pause from Kenny, "How long have you been traveling with them?"

"About a year and a half," Craig says.

"Are we going to stay with them?"

"I..." Craig falls silent and looks at the others walking ahead of them. They had helped Craig out a lot with getting Kenny out of that place. But in the progress one of them had died, and he knew that they would most likely continue to be hunted down because of it, remaining unsafe, "I'm not sure..."

Meanwhile walking a head of them, Clyde glances back and looks at them, having been curious as to what they're doing.

"D'awww, look at them, they're holding hands again. How cute," he says quietly.

And everyone ends up looking back at them as well.


	16. Chapter 16

Later on, as evening falls, the group comes to a stop and decides to set up camp for the night.

"Here should be good enough," Dot says.

"Are we close to the town yet?" Clyde asks, his legs feeling tired from walking so much.

"Yes, we should be there by tomorrow," Dot replies, moving some of her short black hair behind her ear and setting down her bag.

Everyone else also sets down their bags, and begins unpacking some things.

"You want some water?" Craig asks Kenny.

"I'm fine," Kenny replies.

"Alright," Craig says and continues looking through his bag, "are you hungry?" and Kenny shakes his head, "Okay, well if you do get hungry, let me know," however, Craig notices that he's starting to get a bit low on his supplies. He looks around for who is carrying the main supply bag and when he spots Token with it, he starts to make his way over to him, "I'll be back, just going to see if I can get some more food supplies," he quickly adds before heading off.

Kenny watches him head off a bit, before he starts looking around the area their in. He spots a fallen over log somewhat near a steep drop and walks over to it. He looks at it, before deciding to take a seat on it. He looks up at the evening sky, the sun was almost gone now but it left behind a reddish-pink hue in it's leave.

"It's a nice view here," a voice says. When Kenny looks at it's source, he sees that it's Stan.

"Is it alright if I sit down here?" he gestures to the log. Kenny doesn't say anything, but nods slowly as he goes back to looking up at the sky. "It's been a while, hasn't it? Since we last saw one another. Last time was at the orphanage six and a half years ago..." Stan chuckles to himself, "how things have changed since then," he looks up at the sky, "I remember when we shared a room and when it'd get dark out, you used to sneak out and go and see Craig till the early hours," a soft smile crosses his face, "you'd used to talk my ear off about him. I wonder if you remember that..."

A thoughtful expression appears on Stan's face as he starts to recall and tell the things from the past.

 **…**

"And then he-"

"Kenny," a young Stan says, cutting the other young boy off, "I'm not sure if you're aware of this but, you talk about Craig a lot."

"Oh I do? S-Sorry," Kenny says hiding a bit of his face into his parka and averting his gaze slightly.

Stan stares at him blankly, "You like him that much huh?"

"What- oh, uh ye-yeah as a friend of course!" Kenny stutters out looking back at him.

"Why don't you just tell him?" Stan asks, obviously not buying what the other had said.

Kenny pauses for a moment, letting the cold outdoor air fill his lungs, "I... can't."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to scare him more," Kenny answers, his expression falling.

"I don't think you should worry about it so much. For all you know, he could be thinking the same about you too," Stan says, "and you two have been secret friends for what? Four or five years now?"

"We were..." Kenny trails off.

"Oh right," Stan says, recalling what had happened, "he's not talking to you still?"

Kenny nods, "Yeah..."

"Well don't give up. Keep trying, I'm sure he'll come around," Stan tells him, trying to reassure his friend.

Kenny looks at him and smiles faintly, "Yeah."

Stan is about to say something else, but spots Kyle and Eric heading towards them. He waves at Kyle, who waves back.

"Here comes Kyle and Eric," Stan informs and Kenny looks over at them then turns and begins heading off, "hey, where are you going?"

"I think I need to clear my head a bit, sorry," Kenny says as he walks away.

"Oh okay," Stan says just as the other two reach him.

"Where is Kenny going?" Kyle asks.

"Just for a walk," Stan replies.

"Hey, don't you guys think Kenny is acting strange lately?" Eric asks.

Kyle corks an eye brow, "Strange how?"

"I don't know, just... strange," Eric says and narrows his eyes.

Stan and Kyle look at one another, then look at Eric, "No man, Kenny's the same as he's always been," Stan says.

"Yeah," Kyle agrees, "I'd say the only strange one here is you."

"Pfff, whatevea, you guys are obviously blind," Eric scoffs, "also, I don't feel like being berated by these snide comments from you two right now, so if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and get me a snack."

"Like you need more food," Kyle remarks.

"I do as a matter of fact. I am a growing boy," Eric says.

"Well you're growing the wrong way," Kyle says flatly.

"OI! I told you I'm not fat! I'm just big boned!" Eric shouts.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Kyle says rolling his eyes.

"It's true!" Eric shouts and starts walking away.

They watch him go until he rounds a corner and Kyle mutters, "Why do we hang around him again?"

"We don't, he hangs around us," Stan replies.

"Oh, right..." Kyle sighs, "I hate him."

"I know," Stan sympathetically.

Later on that day, as Stan gets into bed, he looks over at Kenny, who is lying awake and staring up at the ceiling.

"You're not going to try and see him tonight?" Stan asks.

"...No," Kenny says.

"Did something else happen?"

"No, it's just..." Kenny sighs, "no matter what I try, he keeps pushing me away from him and I don't know what to do. It's frustrating. I keep trying to talk to him and ask him what's going on but, he just ignores me when I do, or runs away. Why won't he just tell me what's wrong?" he let's out another sigh, this time much longer.

"You're really worried about him huh?" Stan notes, "Well if you can't talk to him, or he won't let you, then why not just keep an eye out for him from a distance or something?"

Kenny looks over at him, "What do you mean?"

"Like if you feel like something bad is going on with him, why not just watch him from a distance and see if there is?"

"You mean like stalking him?" Kenny asks raising a brow, "I don't want to do that..."

"Well it's the only way I can think of for you to see what's going on with him, because it sure doesn't sound like he's going to tell you what's wrong."

Kenny pauses for a long moment, "What if he sees me?"

"Just make sure he won't then," Stan says simply.

Kenny looks back up at the ceiling, frowning a bit. As if debating the idea over in his head.

After that, Kenny had begun to watch Craig from a distance. Stan never quite knew what exactly it was that Kenny really saw in Craig or why he liked him so much. And he would continue not knowing why until years later, when Craig had joined his small group. It wasn't until an argument had broken out in the group with Craig insisting on going to get Kenny after finding out where he could be, that Stan started to really see it and finally understand why.

"You want to what?!" Dot exclaims.

"I want to save Kenny," Craig says.

"I'm well aware of that part, but do you have any idea what that means?! It's suicide! You'll get yourself killed if you do that!" Dot shouts.

"I don't care, I need to get him out of that place!" Craig shouts back.

"You don't even know if he's still with those people or even if he's alive for that matter!"

"I've told you before, he can't die!" Craig states.

"And have you seen this power first hand?" Dot asks.

"He told me about it," Craig replies.

"Oh, so you're just going by word then and not actual proof," Dot scoffs.

"I believe him. When we were locked in that room, his wounds would heal fast," Craig says.

"We can't just go and save someone, based on their word," Dot sighs out.

Craig looks around the room, "And what about you all? What do you think?" he asks them and they stay silent.

"Well..." Token speaks up, "Dot is kind of right... it would be suicide."

"Or worse," Clyde adds.

"Maybe, you should take in to consideration that... Kenny may not be around anymore," Token says, "I mean it has been over six years now, so it's possible that he might not-"

"You all can't believe that Kenny may still be alive after all these years?!" Craig shouts, "Than what about us?! Look at us! We have powers! What's so hard to believe that Kenny has a regenerative healing power that won't let him die?!" the whole room falls in to a dead silence, "You all... wouldn't be here right now, if not for him," he seethes out, then turns to leave, "I'll figure out a way to save him myself. Cowards."

With that Craig leaves the room, slamming the door behind him as he does. The room stays silent for a good long while, even after he has left. Stan looks at the door, as Craig's words echo in his head. Later on going out to talk to him. Finding him leaning against an old ventilation unit that rests outside the building they were squatting in. Stan offers a small smile when Craig looks over at him.

"What do you want?" Craig glares.

Stan walks over and sits next to him on the unit, "Why do you want to save Kenny so much?" he asks.

"Because..." Craig looks forward, "he's saved me, more times than I can count. And was the only person to give a damn about me when nobody else did. He was always there for me... even when I didn't deserve it. If he hadn't had been there for me all those times or, kept telling me to hold on... I wouldn't be here today."

"I see..." Stan says, "You care about him a lot don't you?"

Craig keeps his gaze trained forward, avoiding Stan's, "He's important to me, yes."

Stan smiles a bit, "Important huh?"

"Like an important friend," Craig adds.

"Just a friend?" Stan muses and Craig glares so hard at him, he thinks that he can see the faint flicker of spark in his eyes, "I-I was just kidding with you dude, jeez," he shakes his head and smiles, "to be honest... he talked about you a lot to me."

Craig's eyes widen slightly, "He did?"

"Yup," Stan nods.

"About what?"

"Just stuff, nothing bad though," Stan replies and chuckles a bit, "he really cared a lot about you," and with that, Stan stands up again, "I'll try talking to the others again. They are pretty scared of the idea of breaking in to a place that has the people that did such horrible things to them but... I'll see if I can help convince them," he walks to the door leading inside and opens it, "After all..." he glances back once more, "he was my friend too."

And he heads back inside.

 **…**

As Stan finishes telling Kenny what had happened, Kenny stares at him, as if processing the last bit of new information.

"It took a _lot_ of talking to but, eventually we were able to get them to come around and convince them to help," Stan says, "We were able to eventually find the headquarters that they were in and find you. Turns out they had two bases. The one we were all in was the the first, just a branch off of the much bigger one that we found you in. But man did that first base ever get totaled when all the doors opened and everyone got out. It was chaos. At least the part where I was," he laughs a bit, "anyways, I'm glad that we got you out of there. It's good to see you again," he smiles a bit, "you know... when Craig first joined us, he was so serious all the time, and he always wanted info on what those people, the government, were doing. Where they could be, why they were doing these awful things and all this other stuff. All to find you. He was so adamant about it, he never once stopped thinking of you. Even though he's usually so serious around us, I can tell that since he's got you back... he acts a bit differently, almost like... he's happy," Stan looks at Kenny, "looks like they were returned after all."

Craig walks over to where Kenny and Stan are seated.

"Hey," Craig says, making himself known.

"Oh hey there Craig, me and Kenny were just having a bit of catching up," Stan says and Craig looks at him, "What's with that look man?" Stan frowns, "Look, I'm not going to steal Kenny away from you or anything okay? So no need to get all jealousy when someone else talks to him."

"I-I'm not jealous!" Craig says a bit flustered, the words having caught him off-guard.

Stan arches an eyebrow, "Really? Because you're giving me the 'go away, I want to talk to my man in private right now', look."

"No, I am not jealous. And Kenny isn't..." Craig trails off when he notices Kenny now looking at him.

"Isn't what?" Stan muses.

"Look, never mind!" Craig snaps at him, "Would you just get out of here!"

Stan gets up, "Alright, alright," he grins, "I'll talk to you later I guess Kenny," and he heads back to the group, laughing to himself, only now discovering as to why Clyde had so much fun teasing Craig before.

Even after Stan rejoins the others, Craig continues to stand there, unmoving. His face feeling warm, and he was sure that if the sun hadn't had gone down by this point, and nighttime hadn't have started to now slowly take over. Kenny would be able to see just how red his face had been. He slowly goes and sits next to the other on the log, keeping his eyes fixed elsewhere.

"I got some more supplies," Craig says, and places his hands down on either side of him, "he uh... didn't say anything weird to you did he? Stan I mean."

"Weird?" Kenny repeats.

"Never mind," Craig mumbles, feeling too awkward to elaborate on what he means by it.

Craig feels something touch his hand then and looks down at it, seeing that Kenny's hand now rest next to his. When he looks up at Kenny, he sees him looking right him causing Craig to quickly look away again. A familiar feeling taking place in his chest again. Even after all the years that had gone by, he still felt that feeling whenever his hand touched the other's.

"We got to see them again," Kenny says looking up.

"Huh?" Craig says confused.

"The stars," Kenny adds.

When Craig looks up at the sky, he can see some stars staring to flicker in to the night sky. Slowly appearing one after another. And he recalls what he had said to Kenny many years ago.

"Yeah," Craig smiles, "I got to see them with you again," and he glances back over at Kenny.

"I'm glad," Kenny says and even though his face still remained stoic, the words seemed sincere to Craig.

As Craig continued to look at Kenny, he could almost feel a faint internal pull of some sort slowly draw him in closer to the other. That is until, there's a sudden very loud crack, followed by some sort of commotion going on back over at the main camp area.

Craig looks over where the others are, "What was..." he stands up and heads over to the rest of the group. Kenny following after him.

As Craig gets closer, he can hear arguing going on.

"Well what else was I suppose to do?!" Clyde shouts.

"I don't know! Anything besides that!" Dot shouts back.

"What's going on?" Craig asks and everyone quiets down.

"They're close to us," Dot says.

A small chill runs through Craig at those words, "How do you know?" he asks.

"Because Clyde took out one of them just now with his power," Dot sighs.

"Hey, if I hadn't of, he would've killed us! Or called for back up!" Clyde responds.

"Well they're still going to figure out that something is wrong when he won't reply!" Dot exclaims pointing down at the ground.

Craig looks down to where she's pointing at and sees that a very mangled body now lie there. Through it's mixed mass of limbs and blood, Craig can make out the very familiar white uniform that is slowly turning red in it.

"Then what should I have done?!" Clyde shouts.

"I don't know!" Dot screams.

"Well-"

"Guys, I don't think that yelling at one another is a good idea if they're close by," Token says.

"Exactly," Stan agrees.

Both of them quiet down, although a bit reluctantly, knowing that the others were right about the current situation. And knowing that fighting wasn't going to get them anywhere.

"What should we do?" Clyde asks.

"Let's pack up our stuff fast and head out before others come looking for this one," Dot says.

Everyone nods in agreement, and goes about packing their things back up again. As Craig puts the remaining stuff back into his bag, he glances over at Kenny and sees him standing near the mangled up body. Just staring down at it, not moving, almost like he's transfixed on it or something.

"Kenny?" Craig calls him, and Kenny's gaze breaks away from the body and looks at him, "Come on," Craig motions, calling him over.

Craig pulls the backpack up and over his shoulders as he finishes up, then slings the duffle bag over one of his shoulders. And walks to where the others are gathering, after having collected their things as well.

"Everyone ready?" Dot asks and they nod, "Okay let's-"

Suddenly a loud static noise is heard and everyone freezes. When they looks at it's source, they realize that it's coming from next to the mangled body. A walkie-talkie.

"Tracker 63, how is your progress?" a static voice asks, " Tracker 63?" it repeats when there's no reply.

"Shit," Stan says and moves the walkie-talkie from the body with his foot, turning it to show the number 63 on it.

Dot's cold steel-gray eyes, land back on Clyde and she crosses her arms, while Clyde looks back at her annoyed, knowing what she is thinking.

"I repeat, tracker 63, what is your progress?" the static voice asks again.

"What do we do?" Stan asks quietly looking at the others.

"Trackers 66 and 67, go and check on tracker 63. He may have come in contact with the subjects," the voice says.

As two voices reply back to the first one, the group falls quiet, all looking at one another.

"We need to get the fuck out of here, now," Dot says as she begins heading off.

Everyone else follows her lead, and begins to make their way hurriedly into the deep woods again.


	17. Chapter 17

The group continues for a good little while at a steady pace, until Token, after having made his way to the front of the group, silently stops everyone stretching out an arm in front of them.

Dot looks at him, "What are you-"

"Shhh!" Token shushes her, "Something feels off..."

Craig takes a second look around their surroundings and also gets a feeling like something isn't quite right either. It was too quiet. Almost eerily so.

"He's right," Craig says in a hushed tone, "something feels off here."

Everyone stands still, becoming hypersensitive to their surroundings. Straining to hear anything that might be out of place. They're about ready to move again, when the sudden small snap of a twig is heard somewhere off to the side, followed by a quick loud bang.

"Argh!" Token yells suddenly and grips at his arm.

"Token!?" Clyde exclaims.

Token moves his hand away, and reveals that there's blood there now, and a small gash, "They shot me," he says wincing.

And suddenly the sound of gunfire is in the air and everyone is running for cover. All of them scattering to different places to hide, behind rocks and trees. Craig quickly ducks down into a ditch, followed by Kenny. He hears footsteps quickly move in towards them and curses to himself, trying to figure out what to do next. He couldn't look over the top without the risk of being shot. But when a very loud crash is heard, Craig chances a quick look to see that a tree has fallen over. He hears a few shouts, followed by a loud crack, similar to the one from before. When he sees that the coast is clear, he gets up, grabbing a hold of Kenny, and out of the ditch running over to the voices. They hide behind a tree for cover when he sees some of the uniformed men run by. He wanted to go and check on the voices from before, knowing who they belonged to. So he hurriedly runs over to the source of the sounds with Kenny and sees another tree that's been knocked down with a body under it.

"Shit man," a voice that Craig recognized as Clyde's says, and he heads towards it.

When he rounds a boulder with Kenny, he finds Clyde and Token there. Token seemed to be leaning against the big rock for support or something, holding an arm over his stomach.

"What happened?" Craig asks.

"I tried to take them out by knocking a tree over, but only got one. The other snuck up on me and-" Token nods his head forward, towards another mangled body that rests on the ground. "He shot me, but Clyde took him out before he could fire another shot."

"Can you stand?" Craig asks.

"I think," Token says and attempts to stand up.

When he shows difficulty however, Clyde goes to his side and tries to steady him and it's then does Craig see the blood on Token's stomach. He grimaces and goes over, standing next to Token, to also help support him up.

"Where are Dot and Stan?" Clyde asks.

"I Don't know, we all got separated in that sudden bullet storm," Craig says, "and it's possible more of them showed up while we were hiding too."

Craig helps move Token forward with Clyde, but they don't make it too far before hearing more footsteps closing in. When they look back, they see a bunch of men in uniform running towards them and Craig looks over at Kenny worried. Clyde looks between the two, then down at Token who nods.

"You two go on a head, we'll catch up," Clyde says.

Craig looks back at them, "But-"

A man rushes out, from behind one of the nearby trees and points his gun at them, "Halt!" he shouts.

Clyde reaches a hand towards the guy, then clenches his hand into a fist and the man is suddenly crushed with a loud cracking sound, every one of his bones being crushed under an intense pressure. His mangled body then falls to the ground, "Go," he tells them.

Craig looks at Token, "But Token-"

"It's alright, we'll mange. We're not defenseless after all, remember?" Token says.

Craig hesitates, unsure if they should really go on or not.

"Well go on already," Clyde says, "don't let them take your boyfriend over there away so soon after all we went through to break him out," he grins.

Craig knew he was right, they had gone through a lot in order to get Kenny out of that place. And if they stayed there, Kenny would most likely be caught again. Was he really planning to waste everything that they all did in order to help him? He then removes Token's arm from his shoulder and stands next to Kenny.

"You'll catch up right?" Craig asks, and the other two nod.

"Yeah," Clyde says.

Craig returns the nod then turns, grabbing Kenny's hand and running off. And as they do, Kenny glances back at them one more time, before his line of sight is obscured by trees and such.

"You ready bro?" Clyde asks.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Token replies.

A group of men all in uniform start to close in around them, their guns held up and aimed right for them.

"Where is subject 122?" one of them asks.

"Sorry who?" Clyde questions, cocking his head.

"The stolen subject," another says annoyed.

"We have no idea what you're talking about," Clyde shrugs.

"Answer now, or we'll shoot!"

Clyde smirks, "You can try," and he reaches a hand forward.

"Fire!" one orders.

Token focuses his power and removes the bases of the nearby trees, causing them to all fall over onto the men. Killing quite a few of them, and the others running out of the way. As they round back into formation and head towards them again. Clyde uses his power to snap, break and tear them apart one by one. A bullet whizzes by his head when he's not paying proper attention and he quickly looks at who shot it. When he spots the one who fried at him, he pulls his hand back in a tugging motion and draws the blood out from the man. Pulling it out from the man's eyes, mouth, nose and ears, until all of his blood is gone from his body. Causing him to bleed to death, then his body falls down onto the ground.

"Kind of a bit of an over kill, don't you think?" Token asks.

Clyde releases his hold on the blood in the air, "Well, he almost shot me," he retorts and Token shakes his head. "There!" Clyde shouts and Token looks to where he is pointing.

He removes his other arm from Clyde's support and motions both of his arms forward, as if tossing something. The group of men then go scattering everywhere.

"Let's finish up here so we can catch up to them already," Token says.

"Right," Clyde nods.

Suddenly Token falls down to the ground.

Clyde looks at him,"What-" before he can finish, he feels something sharp hit the back of his neck and finds himself also falling onto the ground.

Both of them ending up on the ground face down. Clyde turns his head to the side and looks up, when he sees a pair of clean white dress shoes standing next to him. As his gaze travels up more, he sees a man wearing a more formal looking white uniform, different from the others that all now stood around him.

"We got two of them," the man speaks in to a walkie, "however subject 122 is not one."

"Should I go after the others?" a deep raspy voice asks.

The man looks back at the voice's source, "Yes, in a moment," he then looks back at Clyde and Token, "but first, I need your help with these two."

 **…**

Craig and Kenny continue to run through the woods, as the sound of footsteps could be heard somewhere off in the distance. They eventually come to a brief stop and catch their breaths.

Kenny looks around, "Do you think they'll be alright?"

Craig tenses a bit, "I'm sure they'll catch up to us," he says and glances back the way they came.

Craig had a bad feeling, but wanted to believe it was nothing. He knew that with their certain powers, they would most likely be able to do something about that bullet wound Token had. Still though, he knew somewhere in the corner of his mind, what might happen to them. He had also wondered if something had happened to Stan and Dot as well. At one point, he thought that he saw a quick glimpse of Stan's hat quickly duck down in to a ditch, before being chased by those men and shots being heard, but he couldn't be certain. Maybe he had just seen things because of the adrenaline pumping so hard through his veins right now or something. Kenny watches him for a moment but doesn't say anything as they continue on forward. But they come to a stop again, when voices are heard.

"Spread out! They should still be in the area!"

The two of them hide behind a tree when they see flashlights lights, moving between the trees.

"What should we do?" Kenny asks in a hushed tone.

"Try and avoid them as best as we can," Craig says and goes to move again, but he feels a tug around his arm. When he looks back as to why, he sees that the duffle bag on his shoulder is caught on a branch, "It's stuck," he mutters and tries to shake it free. But a light shines directly on them when he makes to much noise because of it.

"Over here!" a voice shouts.

"Shit," Craig says and quickly moves his arm from out of the straps, leaving the bag hanging there on the tree.

They both head off and run until they reach a steep drop. Craig looks back and sees them being gained on, then looks forward again. And with out saying a word, jumps down the drop holding onto Kenny still. They land in some bushes at the bottom of it, and Craig feels some minor aches go through him but he quickly gets back up, knowing that they don't have time to stop. He helps Kenny up and they both start running again.

They get to a clearing, and Craig quickly looks around the edges of it for something to hide behind. He couldn't risk running right out in to the open, they would be seen without a doubt and fully exposed. He spots a massive boulder and heads towards it. They hide in a spot that's covered somewhat with bushes next to it and wait catching their breaths again. A little while later footsteps and voices go past them.

"They couldn't have gotten far! Keep moving!" a voice orders.

Eventually it starts to get quiet as the footsteps fade further away from them. Craig stands up and leans against the boulder, "I think we're good now," he sighs.

"Are you sure about that?" a sudden deep raspy voice asks.

Craig's heart stops and he looks up quickly to see someone sitting at the top of the boulder, looking down at them. Craig backs away instantly and the person stands up. Craig can now see that this person, a guy, was pretty big and had a strong looking build, with dark blond hair having been shaved short at the sides. But more than that, he recognized the white sleeveless uniform the guy was wearing was very similar to that of the other uniforms he had seen that night.

An almost sinister like grin spreads across the guy's face, "You have something of ours."

"Ours?" Craig repeats and moves into a protective stance in front of Kenny.

"Yeah, ours, you know. The government's," he adds, "what you stole from us, subject 122, is property of the government."

Craig glares at him, "Kenny isn't the government's property, or anyone else's."

"Oh trust me, he is," he says and then jumps down from the boulder, landing in front of them. He looks at Craig and begins slowly walking towards them, "Now hand him over."

"Over my dead body," Craig seethes back, refusing to move.

"That can be arranged," the guy smirks and then starts bolting towards Craig.

He's fast, and Craig just barely has enough time to dodge a fist flying towards him. However, he's not as lucky as to dodge the knee that impacts with his stomach. Craig falls to the ground clutching his stomach. He had been hit in the stomach before, but the amount of pain from that blow, was unlike anything he had felt before. He could almost feel his stomach turn in on it's self it was so hard. The guy moves to bring a fist down on Craig, but Kenny stands in front of him, stopping it.

"Awww, how cute, you both are trying to protect one another. That's so sweet it's sickening," the guy sneers, "if you want to save him from anymore harm, then come with me."

"No..." Craig says, getting back onto his feet. He places a hand on Kenny's shoulder, "I told you, he's not going anywhere over my dead body."

The guy frowns, "I can tell that you're going to be a real pain," he cracks his knuckles, "right, let's get this over and done with."

He takes a step towards them, but Craig is ready this time. He quickly moves Kenny to the side and fires a blast at the guy. The guy then goes flying backwards, slamming into the boulder and dropping down to the ground.

"Let's go," Craig says to Kenny. But they don't get far when they hear a laugh.

"That kind of tickled."

When Craig looks back, he sees the guy standing back up, dusting himself off. Craig's eyes widen in surprise. Usually if he hit somebody with that attack, it would kill them. But this guy got back up and brushed it off like it was nothing.

"You must be the one that directly broke in to the building, judging by your power," the guy says, "I heard about it. They said you were one of the escapees from years ago. They thought you were dead after going over a high drop. What were you again? Subject 123?" Craig visibly tenses at that, and the guy smirks seeing his reaction, "Too bad I only have orders to bring in subject 122. Oh well, least it will be fun taking you down," and he begins walking towards them.

Craig looks at Kenny, "Kenny go!" he tells him, "Go and hide somewhere, I'll find you," he needed the other one to get away from them, because he was the real target in all this. Kenny doesn't move though and only looks at Craig.

"Oh no you don't!" the guy yells.

Craig pushes Kenny away, "Go!" he orders and turns to face the guy, firing a blast at him.

The guy raises his arms up, prepared for the attack this time and blocks it, only being pushed backwards a small amount. Craig quickly looks back at Kenny, who watches him, still unmoving. There was something hidden underneath that expressionless face he wore, but Craig wasn't quite sure what it was. However a couple of seconds later, Kenny slowly begins to back away, still looking at him. Craig nods his head and with that Kenny turns and takes off into the woods.

The guy notices and goes to run for him, but Craig fires another attack at him. He dodges it, then stops and looks at Craig.

"You want to get to him? Then you'll have to go through me," Craig tells him.

A smirk reappears on the guys face, "Fine. Have it your way."

The guy then rushes at Craig again, not giving him the chance to fire another shot. He brings his fist hard into Craig's chest, winding him and sending him backwards into a tree. For a few seconds, Craig can't breathe, and he struggles to catch his breath. His whole rib cage throbbing from that heavy impact. Craig manages to steady himself and get up again. His back aching from the weight of the backpack still on him, so he slides it off.

He looks at the guy, knowing that he definitely didn't have the strength of the usual human being. Before Craig can come up with something, the guy is charging at him once again. Craig manages to dodge and the guy punches the tree behind him instead, causing the whole thing to shake. As Craig quickly moves away, he can see a dent in the tree from the guys fist. He knew that he needed to at least keep his distance from him, even if his attacks didn't do much damage.

The guy quickly runs and catches up with Craig however, not giving him any chances to counter. He swings another punch at Craig, who ducks down, dodging it. Craig stops and then quickly swings a leg around hitting the guy in the head. It knocks the guy back but not over, and he quickly readjusts his footing and grabs Craig's wrist then the front of his sweater, pulling him up and over, slamming him hard into the ground. The painful contact with Craig's back makes him let out a strained scream.

The guy stands over him and looks down at him, "Is that all you got? I'm disappointed."

He then raising up a foot and Craig takes the chance to hurriedly whirl his foot around, and knock the guy's one supporting leg away. The guy falls to the ground and Craig gets up as fast as he can, trying to put distance between them.

"Ha! Now that's more like it!" the guy laughs getting back up, and Craig hides behind a tree before he sees. The guy looks around, "Where did you go? I thought we were having fun," there's a brief few seconds of silence before the tree Craig is hiding behind shakes violently, causing him to move out of the way, "there you are," he grins and Craig takes off, "oh not this whole running thing again."

Suddenly, Craig find his face making contact with the hard ground as something slams into him from behind. Some dirt and grass enter his mouth, as his face slides against the ground. He tries to move because he can't breathe, but something heavy is on his back, keeping him in place. Then he feels little pricks of needles on his scalp as his head is pulled backwards by his hair roughly, causing some of them to come out.

"Now..." the guy says lowly, "no more running away."

He slams Craig's face down hard into the ground and pain rings quickly throughout Craig's head. He feels a hot burning sensation where his nose is and a part of him thinks it might be broken. Then in the next second he's turned onto his back. The guy grins sinisterly and goes to hit Craig's face, but he blocks it with his arms defensively. And he is instead met with a nauseating pain to his stomach. The pain is so intense that Craig can't help but move his arms away in order to cover his stomach, feeling like he might be sick. But as soon as he does, a fist is brought down hard to his face. Over and over and over again. Craig keeps his eyes shut, as each blow adds more swelling to his flesh. The guy above him laughs, almost like a deranged psycho who's having to much fun causing the other pain like this.

Craig tries to concentrate as hard as he can, knowing that if this keeps up, he's done for. He feels the familiar warmth build in his eyes and when the guy pulls back for another hit, Craig opens his eyes fast and shoots an attack right at the guy's face. The guy falls backwards off of Craig and covers his face. Craig very sluggishly sits up.

"Heh, you've done it now..." the guy says quietly, and moves his hands slowly away from his face, "you've pissed me off," he then reaches a hand out and grabs Craig by the collar, picking him up, "time to end this."

Suddenly Craig is flying through the air and then something very hard and jagged pierces into his side, cracking something, as he falls over a massive object. Only when he lands onto the ground on the other side, does he realize that he was tossed right into the massive boulder from before. The top of it had dug into him and he suddenly found it very hard to breathe. He coughs a bit and blood splutters out. But he can still hear him, that guy, his footsteps slowly and purposefully making there way over to him, coming to finish the job.

The guy smiles to himself as he approaches the boulder. Waiting to see what state he had left his victim in. He was going over on how he should finish him off. Quick and easy, or let him slowly bleed to death. He liked both options but was on a pretty tight schedule, so quick and easy was probably more ideal for him. With each step he took closer, the smile on his face grew wider. As he reached the boulder and started to walk around it, he wonder if he should say something degrading to the victim or not. He knew that whatever he chose though, in the end, it would still be plenty satisfying to him. However, as he rounds the boulder to it's other side, the smile on his face fades away instantly. Realizing that the victim was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is he?" he mutters to himself annoyed, and no longer feeling any satisfaction.


	18. Chapter 18

Two figures very sluggishly make their way through the woods, one of them having their arm wrapped around the other's shoulder for support.

"Kenny..." a very hazy visioned Craig pants, "I thought you-" he covers his mouth and coughs.

"I never left," Kenny says, keeping his eyes trained forward, "I was staying hidden, but I never left."

"Why?" Craig asks.

"I couldn't just leave you..." Kenny glances at Craig, "you're important to me as well," he says, "I was waiting for his line of sight to break off of you, then was going to get you. I almost had the chance when you hid, but he found you and you hit that boulder when you went over. Then that ended up being my only chance to get you..." he looks forward again, "I hope you're not mad with me."

Craig gives a small smile. It's only then does he notice that Kenny is also now wearing the backpack he took off.

Kenny comes to a stop, "Down," he whispers.

And they both hunch down behind some bushes. Craig winces in pain as they do, his side hurting like hell. It felt as if sharp knifes had made home inside of him, and every little move he was making, set them off. And he found that his breathing was getting progressively worse too. It didn't help, that his nose was now pretty much clotted with blood, making it near impossible to breathe through it. A couple of seconds later, some rustling passes by near them and Craig can feel himself about to cough again, so he covers his mouth in hopes to try and stop it from happening.

Kenny carefully leans closer to him, "Just breathe slowly," he whispers. Craig can feel Kenny's grip loosen around him, making it easier for him to do so. He takes in slow shallow breaths through his mouth as the rustling of steps get further away, "Are you okay to move again?"

Craig nods and Kenny helps him up. Craig winces as Kenny's grip around him tightens again. He wasn't really in any condition to be moving, but he knew that they had needed to get out of there somehow. Each step he took, felt as if something was digging it's way deeper in to him, and the constant feeling of being winded and not being able to catch his breath only became worse with each dig. He was partially surprised that he could even move at all, he thought that maybe it was his strong urgency to get somewhere safe, or maybe it was the adrenaline, he wasn't sure.

The two continued on for a short while until coming across an old building that looked like it was some sort of mill. Craig's eyes land next to it and he sees a river. As they approach it, they find the door leading in to it, slightly open. Kenny opens the door fully with his freed arm and they enter it. The building was old and musty inside, and bits of wood had started to deteriorate from what looked like old age. They spot a wall on the far side, and walk over to it. Kenny carefully then, sits Craig down next to it so that he can rest. Craig's breathing had become so ragged and shallow, he wasn't sure how much longer he could sustain these injuries with out some kind of medical help. He could see Kenny watching him through his ever darkening vision, and he smiles slightly, as if to reassure him.

"I... don't think I can keep going," Craig pants, "This injury is pretty bad. But I want you to keep on moving alright?" he reaches a hand up to Kenny's cheek, "I'm glad you're no longer in that awful place, so I want you to continue to be free and keep on moving," darkness had all but taken over Craig's vision by this point, "keep..." but he doesn't get a chance to finish before his eyes close, and he falls over onto his side.

Kenny's eyes widen,"Craig!"

He then places a hand to the other's neck, checking for a pulse. When he finds a faint one, he moves his hand away and down to the bottom of Craig's sweater. He pulls up his shirt and sweater, only to find a huge bruise mark with some broken blood vessels on his side. He examines it for a few seconds before lightly touching the bruised area, and feeling something broken under his finger tips. He looks at the blood around Craig's mouth then moves his hand away and takes off the backpack. He opens it and looks through it until he finds a large folding knife. He looks at it, then unfolds it. He then places his hand on the floor and then the sharp blade over his wrist. He puts his foot on top of the end of it and begins to press down hard into his wrist. The blade cuts through the skin easily, but as it reaches the bone it slows down. He adjusts the blade's angle a bit so that it now could wedge between the connecting bones in his wrist. He adds on more pressure to the blade, and a scraping sound is heard as the metal rubs up against the bones. It slowly cuts it's way through the connecting joint, eventually causing it to dislocate and sever. As soon as it does that, the blade cuts through the remainder of his wrist quite easily.

Blood pools around the now severed limb. And he stares at it, his expression never once changing from the stoic one he always wore now. He lifts up his bleeding limb and places it onto Craig's swollen side. The blood from the fresh wound begins to spill all over Craig's side. Kenny focuses all of his attention on to the open wound. And nothing but silence fills the air. It stays that way for a good little while, till faintly, a small flicker of light began to glow around the limb's open wound. The light gradually started to glow brighter with each passing second, until flesh had began to regrow from it. Kenny continued to focus his attention on it, now pressing a bit more into Craig's side. As the flesh grew, the shape of his hand started to form again. Growing from the palm all the way up to the fingers at a steady pace. His whole hand eventually regenerates fully, and he moves his new fingers along Craig's side, feeling around for what no longer seemed to be there. Slowly he moves his hand away from Craig's side, also seeing that the bruised mark was no longer there either. He pulls Craig's sweater and shirt back down and shortly afterwards, the other boy begins to stir.

Craig's eyes open and he looks at the other, "...Kenny?" he says quietly, "Why are you-" when he sits up without feeling any pain, he stops, "my side, it doesn't hurt anymore. And I can breathe fine now too..." he gives a confused look, "there's no more pain... anywhere."

Kenny takes out a small cloth from the bag, "I healed you."

Craig looks at him, "How-" he gets interrupted when the cloth starts to wipe at his face, Kenny was cleaning the blood away. Craig pushes his hand away though, and stares at him shocked, "How did you-"

"I cut my hand off and was able to heal you with the aura that surrounded it," Kenny explains.

"Y-You what?" Craig says still in shock, "You can do that?"

"It seems so," Kenny replies, "Although, I wasn't sure if it would work or not when I did it. It never has worked that way in the past before. Of course, back then they were trying to force it out of me. Instead of me willing to use it for something I wanted to protect. For something I don't want to lose..." he stares directly at Craig then, and the dark-haired boy feels something skip.

Kenny moves the cloth back onto Craig's face then, and continues to gently wipe away at the blood around Craig's mouth and nose. His gaze flicks up to Craig's after it's cleaned away, and stays there, which causes the other to eventually look away elsewhere. Kenny then places his hand on Craig's cheek and runs his thumb across it, causing the other to quickly look back at him. They look at one another for a short while, till something is heard moving from outside.

The two of them look around, and Craig quickly grabs and puts the knife and cloth back into the bag, zipping it up. They go completely still then, and listen for any sounds. Craig's gaze falls briefly onto the amputated hand and he grimaces a bit before he looks elsewhere. It's silent for a good while and Craig is about ready to speak when there's a sudden crash from the other side of the building. They both look as something big comes crashing through the wall about fifteen feet away from them. As the dust starts to settle, the features of what it is start to become clearer.

"Looks like I guessed right, you were hiding in here after all," they hear a familiar, deep, raspy voice say.

It was the guy from before, he had appeared once again in front of them and Craig felt something close to despair because of it. They both get up quickly and Craig, grabs the backpack, and swings it back on.

"Oh ho, what's this? You seem to be all better now? How is that possible I wonder," the guy glances at Kenny, "two birds with one stone," he says and begins to walk towards them.

Craig's eyes glow and he fires a blast up at the ceiling, causing it to cave in, "Let's go!" he tells Kenny and the two of them rush out of the building, using the falling debris as cover.

They run back into the woods and along the river, until they come to a drop off and look down it. There was a waterfall that lead down the river even further connecting to it. Craig looks back quickly and sees the guy gaining fast on them.

"Jump!" Craig tells Kenny and grabs his hand.

The two go to jump, but as they go over, a sharp jerk pulls up on Craig's grasp around Kenny's hand. And he finds himself hanging in mid-air. When he looks up at the cause of it, he sees that the guy has grabbed onto Kenny's other wrist, and was grinning at them. Craig starts to feel his grip begin to slip from Kenny's.

"Shoot through my arm," Kenny tells Craig.

"Huh?" Craig says confused.

"Use your power to cut through my arm," Kenny clarifies.

Craig's brow furrows, "I-"

"Craig. I'll be okay. Just hurry," Kenny interrupts.

Even though Craig didn't want to harm the other in any sort of way. He knew this wasn't the time for second thoughts. If he hesitated, he'd end up losing Kenny again, and he couldn't let that happen. So Craig focuses his gaze and his eyes start to glow. And just as the guy begins to lift them up, Craig fires a shot through Kenny's elbow area, and a sudden shift in gravity sets in as the two fall into the water below.

The guy watches as the two are carried off down stream, "Shit..." he mutters and tosses the severed limb in his grasp away.

"They got away," a man wearing all black says walking up behind him, "it's alright though, we'll find them again."

 **…**

Craig resurfaces, after being dragged quite a bit under the rushing currents. He gasps for air, as the water slaps against his face. He looks around for Kenny, after realizing he had let go of him when they crashed into the water. He spots him being pulled by the current in another direction and swims over to him. His clothes and bag weighing him down, and ever more so when he grabs a hold of the other. He struggles to keep them both above the water and quickly looks for something to grab on to. He swims to the side and grabs a branch but it breaks. He then sees a log sticking out from the side and directs them towards it. They crash into the side facing them and Craig moves the two of them along the side and pulls them both up onto the the riverbank.

Craig coughs, hacking up any water that may have entered his lungs. He then looks at Kenny and notices that he's unconscious.

"Kenny!" he leans over him and shakes him, "Hey!"

He starts to panic and think that maybe he lost to much blood, or that too much water entered his lungs. He leans down to the other's chest and places an ear on it, listening for breathing. When he hears none however, he quickly moves his hands over the other's chest and starts to do compressions.

"Come on, Come on! Breathe! Fucking breathe!" Craig pleads.

He pinches Kenny's nose and goes to breathe air into his mouth. Just before he's about to do so, Kenny starts to cough and Craig moves away. Kenny rolls over to his side and coughs up some water, then opens his eyes and looks at Craig.

"Sorry..." he says quietly, "I can't swim."

Craig let's out a small laugh of relief, and hugs the other as he sits up, "I'm just glad you're alive," he tells him. He let's go of him a short while later and then looks at his arm.

"It's alright, it will heal," Kenny says taking note of where Craig was staring.

"I know but..." Craig stares at the blood dripping off of it, "I'm sorry."

Kenny covers it with his hand, "Don't be, we needed to get out of that situation. Besides, it was my idea after all."

However, those words still don't stop the tinge of guilt Craig had felt for being the cause of it. He then notices as Kenny's arm starts to glow, and Kenny moving his hand away, revealing that his arm had begun to regenerate.

"Shouldn't we keep moving?" Kenny asks getting up.

"Uh- yeah," Craig says, snapping out of the mini trance he was in and getting up also.

He knew that they weren't safe yet, and that they were still being chased. They needed to keep on moving. Craig nods at Kenny before they both start to head off into the deep woods yet again.


	19. Chapter 19

After some time Craig and Kenny come across an old water port looking area, on the outskirts of a town. Craig looks around it, searching for a place to rest. He didn't like the idea of staying out in the open, where they could be attacked at any moment after what just happened. He spots some old warehouses and thinks that they can make do there for the night. It was better than nothing after all.

"This way," Craig says and the two head towards the old buildings.

As they get closer to them, Craig could now tell that all the buildings in the area seemed to have been both forgotten about and abandon. Which was a good thing for them he guessed. As they walk between two of the buildings, Craig opens his mouth to say something, but it's suddenly covered by Kenny's hand as he's pushed backwards onto the side of one of the buildings. Craig gives a confused look, as Kenny raises his index finger to his lips, signaling a quiet motion.

"Do you really think they went this way?" a voice asks.

"They said it was likely that they might have gone this way, because it's close to the woods and the nearest town," another voice replies.

It doesn't take Craig long to figure out what those voices are talking about. He had hoped that they had gotten far enough away from those people, but it seemed as though they hadn't yet. Just then, a light shines down the small pathway they're in, and Craig feels his heart almost stop. They were somewhat hidden behind a stack of old boxes, but he was sure that if they looked long enough, they might spot them there. Kenny then pushes up hard against Craig, trying to make them as flat onto the wall as possible, as not to be seen by the light. Doing this, causes Craig's back to arch awkwardly around the bag on his back, and his face to be now pushed into Kenny's shoulder. He could now feel the other's warm breath dance against the side of his ear, and could also feel as one of Kenny's knees pushes it's way between his legs, causing them to spread around it as he tried making them blend into the wall. Craig shuts his eyes and holds his breath when he sees the light moving closer to them.

"I don't see any signs of them being here," one of them says.

"Yeah same. Let's go check elsewhere in town," the other responds.

The light moves away and the sound of footsteps walking off is heard. When Craig can't hear them anymore he opens his eyes, feeling relived that they had gone. That encounter had been to close for comfort for him. Although, at the thought of closeness, he realizes just how close Kenny was to him in that moment.

"Sorry about that," Kenny says, pulling away from the other a bit.

"It's fine," Craig murmurs.

When Craig feels Kenny move his knee away from between him, the sudden release in pressure there causes him to shudder slightly.

"Are you cold?" Kenny asks, noticing the other shake.

Craig's face warms and he hurriedly pushes past Kenny, "Uh, yeah a bit. We did fall in a river after all," he says quickly.

Kenny watches him walk for a moment before catching up to him, "Where are we going?"

"The buildings around here seem empty, so I thought we could sleep in one of them tonight," Craig explains. He then spots a slightly opened door and heads for it. When he reaches it, he grabs it and forces the rest of it to open, causing it to squeak quite a bit as he does so. He looks around inside of the old building, a warehouse, and sees that it's pretty much emptied, said for a few boxes and things here and there, "Guess this will do." he says taking a step inside.

Kenny steps inside next to him and Craig shuts the door. They walk over to a cracked window, that has some moonlight shining through it and Craig removes his backpack. He figures that this spot will do, as there's a bit of cover from the old fallen boxes and stuff. That way if anyone did come in, they wouldn't be spotted right away. Although judging by what the voices he heard earlier said, they seemed to be in the clear for now. He places his bag on the ground and then kneels down to open it, taking out some things from it to dry.

"Everything is soaked," Craig says, taking out a completely drenched small blanket, that he knew would be of no use that night. When he finishes removing the other things from the bag, he moves it off to the side and unzips his sweater, taking it off, "Hopefully this can all dry overnight," he sets it down and then removes his shirt, placing it next to his sweater. He looks at Kenny, "You should take your clothes off to dry too. It won't be much fun sleeping in damp clothing."

Kenny looks down and grabs the bottom of his sweater and removes it. After he sets it down, he goes to remove his jogging pants next, but Craig notices just as he finishes taking his shoes off and his eyes widen.

"Y-You don't need to remove your pants!" Craig quickly says, stopping him, "Just your sweater and shoes are fine."

Kenny looks at him, pausing for a moment, before he removes his shoes and goes to sit down next to him, "What now?"

"Well, we were supposed to be with the others when we got here, but that didn't turn out. So now we wait. Usually when we go to towns, we would stay in empty buildings and such. So if they do make it here, they should be able to meet us somewhere around here," Craig tells him, although he had an awful nagging feeling still at the back of his mind, "we'll take a look around tomorrow and see if there are any traces of them, and if not, then... we will need to keep on moving. Because we can't stay here for long, it's not safe."

Kenny looks up at the cracked window, "I see..."

"By the way," Craig says recalling something, "did you know who that guy was? The one that was chasing us down?"

Kenny pauses for a moment, "No. I've never seen him before."

Craig frowns, "I wonder if he's a subject too... but if he is, why is he working for those people?" he thinks aloud.

Craig had remembered how his power against that guy was basically rendered useless. The thought of that guy working for them and the possibility of having to ever run in to him again, didn't sit well in Craig's gut. He knew that he didn't stand a chance against someone like that. He was even lucky to be alive now, if not for Kenny then he'd most likely be...

Craig shivers a bit and Kenny looks at him, he then moves closer to Craig, close enough that their bare shoulders now touch one another. The action causes Craig's breath to catch for a moment, and there's a bit of silence that falls. Gradually, Craig finds that some thoughts in the back of his mind start to bubble up to the surface.

"Why... didn't you come with me back then?" Craig asks quietly. It had been a question that had been on his mind for a long time, ever since they separated all those years ago. And now that they had the chance to breathe again and it was only them, he had felt like this was a good enough chance to ask it.

Kenny's gaze drifts away from him, and looks forward. There's a few more seconds of silence before he gives his answer, "I didn't want them to find you."

"What do you mean?"

"They know I can't die. If I had gone with you then, they would've kept trying to track us down. Each and every single day, until they caught us. And I wasn't sure if they would've brought us both back or not, but I didn't want you to suffer because of me. I still wanted you to have a chance, that's why..." he trails off.

Another silence falls on them as Craig digests the words in his mind. He had been wanting to hear Kenny's answer to that question for a long time, and now he had. Although Craig had always had a feeling it was something along the lines of what Kenny had just said. It made sense after all. They probably would've been tracked down each and every day back then, like they currently are now, having to worry if whether or not someone would be waiting for them right around the next corner or turn in their path.

Craig also took note of the more ominous meaning that Kenny had said when he wasn't sure if they both would've been brought back or not. While his power did seem to interest those people, he knew that they had far more interest in Kenny's regenerative powers. So the thought of them taking out a B class, which he found out he was shortly after their room separation back then, for an S class subject didn't sound too far off in what their actions might have been.

As kids, there's a good chance that they might not have been able to get far away from them. Especially with the lack of understanding about the world and these powers that were thrust upon them. But they're not kids now, and they understand much more. And also, unlike back then, Craig isn't as weak, he was much stronger than what he was as a child. Although, that fight he had against that guy before, might make it seem otherwise. But then again, that guy, whoever he was, wasn't exactly a normal human. Still, he felt like he could protect the other much better now than before. He would make sure that nothing bad would ever happen to Kenny again.

Craig's thoughts wandered back to his question, even though he pretty much knew all that Kenny had said to him. He still wished that Kenny could've tried to escape back then. It was a selfish thought, but he just wanted him not to have suffered for as long as he did, even if it was only prolonged by a small amount of time.

"I don't regret it," Kenny says, breaking the building silence. Craig looks at him, being pulled from his thoughts now. He notices Kenny looking at him again, "I don't regret it," he repeats, "even though you might feel very different on my choice back then. If it meant keeping you alive and not having to suffer anymore, then I didn't regret it," he then places his hand on top of Craig's, "but I am sorry for how alone, confused and scared you must have felt..." his hand gently squeezes the other's, "having to let you go that night, was the hardest thing I ever had to do."

Craig's gaze falls downwards onto their hands briefly before he looks forward and away. There was a tight feeling growing in his chest, followed by the faint beginnings of tears threatening his eyes.

"I missed you... a lot," Craig says quietly.

"I know..."

Craig tries to steady his now shaky breathing, "What happened after?" he asks in attempt to change the topic and stop himself from spilling over, "After they caught you again," he adds.

Kenny slowly looks away as if thinking back on it, "Are you sure that's something you really want to know?" he asks.

There's a moment of hesitation from Craig before he nods in response, "Yeah."

Truthfully, he was a bit afraid to know, but he also wanted to know in hopes of better understanding the Kenny he now sees before him. The one that's face was devoid of practically any or all emotion and seemingly pain as well.

"After I got recaptured from the escape..." Kenny starts, retelling the events from his past.

 **…**

A young Kenny slowly comes to, finding himself being attached to a cold surface, a metal table. The first thing he sees are a pair of shoes standing in front of the angled table he was on. Next was the blaring light that was shinning down on him.

"You certainly gave us quite a bit of trouble, subject 122" a woman's voice says. Kenny tries to make out who it is, but the blinding light was making it difficult, "But I'm glad we were able to recover you. You are very valuable to us after all."

"Who are you?" Kenny asks wearily.

"Have you forgotten me? We've met before," the woman says and Kenny continues squinting trying to see who it is, "Although you weren't fully awake the last few times we met I suppose," the woman takes some steps closer to him, so that she is now more visible, "after all... you had just come back from dying."

It takes Kenny a few seconds but an images flashes through his mind of a woman that had glasses and over watched him during a few of the experiments he was in. And his eyes widen as he realizes that he had seen her before.

"Well, whether you remember me or not, is of least importance. All that matters is we got you back subject 122, the immortal S class," the woman smiles slightly, "but because of your little... uproar, we lost some of our valuable subjects and had to switch to a new location with what remained there. So thank you, oh so much for that subject. But to make sure that something like that never happens again... we're going to take extra precautions," she snaps her fingers then, "begin the experiments."

With that, the table Kenny's on starts to move back until it's facing upwards at the ceiling. The light above him, completely blinding his sight. He sees someone stand over him, a person in a mask, holding something sharp and jagged in their hand. They lean over one of his legs, bringing the sharp object to it.

"You will never leave this place," the woman says in a cold tone, "begin."

That's the last clear thing Kenny hears, because what ever is said to him there after is drowned out by his agonizing screams as the sharp jagged object cuts into his leg.

From that point onwards, all the experiments that followed got much worse than those he ever experienced before. They had started to experiment in the different ways in which he could die and come back, each one becoming more extreme than the last. One of the worst being for him, was when they would stop his heart slowly as they cut in to his flesh and then bring him back again and continue to do it for hours on end. All to see how far they could go with his regenerating abilities. There had been many points where Kenny wished he could actually die and stay that way for real, he had just wanted it all to end.

Eventually as the years went by, he began to feel less and less. He had started to become numb and hallow inside. The constant dying and begin brought back seemed to have caused something in his senses to change so that he no longer could feel anymore pain. Instead all he could feel was a dullness of some sort. His emotions had voided in to nothingness and he no longer showed any reaction to what they did to him. He had become like that of a rag doll. All he could do was wait out the rest of his days in the metal confines of the room he was prisoner to.

He saw nothing but darkness around him anymore, just blurs of shadows and hollowed out faces. He had expected to see those things for the remainder of his lived out life. Until a voice one day, called out his name.

"Kenny..."

The voice had seemed somewhat familiar, but also distant at the same time. He wondered who it belonged to. So he looked to see who was calling him. At first the person's face was hollowed out like all of the others but, as he stared at it more, parts of it started to fade in like pieces of a puzzle. Slowly as the pieces all started to connect and the face started to become more clear to him, he began to realize that he had seen that face before. It was slightly different than the last time he had seen it but, he knew whose face this had been before him.

"Cra...ig..?"

The name sounded almost foreign for him to say it, it had been so long since he last used it. He thought that maybe this was just another dream that he was having about the other again, like many times before. He couldn't imagine him being right there before him or how he even knew where to find him. So he thought it wasn't real.

"What are you... doing here?"

He wasn't sure why he continued to talk, he was certain this was just a dream. Maybe it was because it had been a while since he last dreamt of him that he did. Although this was the first time he had dreamt of the other one seeming to be older, usually he only had dreams where they were still both young and it was about far off better times than these. He hears him let out a small laugh, like that of relief. All of it seemed so real to him, but he knew it couldn't be.

"What a dumb question. I'm here for you."

A small smile spreads across Craig's face. Something about those words and his smile causes a very faint reaction in Kenny. Even if it was a dream, those words still gave him a feeling to that similar of hope almost. He goes to ask him how he got there when a sudden loud sound goes off, like one he heard many years ago. The next little bit goes by in a flurry of meshed images for him, and the next thing he knows he's in the other's arms. And it's only then, when he can touch, hold and smell him, does he begin to realize that it's not a dream, but reality. The strong hold Craig had on him, couldn't be fake, he could feel his body as his still intact arm wrapped around it. He could feel the warmth and rise and fall of his breathing against him. And then as if something had connected somewhere deep inside of him, a strange feeling reverberated in his rib cage. One that had not happened in such a long time.

 **…**

"That was... the first time in a long time that I felt something," Kenny finishes explaining.

Craig didn't know what to say or do, so he remained quiet as everything set in. It was a lot to take in, hearing about everything Kenny experienced and went through. He knew that it was going to be bad, but he had no idea just how bad it really was. This also explained why Kenny was the way he was now, and he couldn't help but show a mixed expression on his face at it.

"I found that..." Kenny continues, moving his hand to face the same way as Craig's and pushing his fingers between the other's so that they now interlock, "even in my darkest thoughts I would remember you, and all those times we spent together. All of the memories. I had wanted to see you again, even though I knew that was very unlikely to happen," he squeezes Craig's hand, "which is why when I saw you, I thought I was dreaming. Even as each part of me began to fade away over time and disappear, yours was the only face whose I saw, that became clear before me again. You were too important to me, to ever truly forget it. You were... are, the only thing left in this world that I can feel anymore."

Craig stares at the other, his eyes wide and face flushed by Kenny's bluntness. He wasn't quite sure on how to reply, he'd never had such a straightforward thing said to him before like that, "Y-You too," he manages to get out, "you are important to me too, and I could... never forget about you," each word Craig said, made his face burn all the more, he wasn't use to all of this. It didn't help that Kenny was looking right at him either, that only added on to the burning feeling inside of him, "U-Um, we should get some rest. Tomorrow's probably going to be a long day," he tries to change the subject to something else, _anything_ else, to stop the inane beating in his chest.

Kenny looks down at their intertwined hands for a moment then away, "Alright," he says and moves his hand away.

The feeling of cool air touching Craig's hand again, leaves him feeling a bit sadden by it as he lies down. Kenny lies down next to him, and Craig can't help feeling a little awkward that they are facing one another. So he decides on turning over and facing away to sleep, otherwise he'd never be able to. He feels Kenny shift closer to him, and press his forehead to the top of his back. The sudden closeness of their half-bare bodies together, causes Craig to shudder a bit.

"Are you cold?" Kenny asks, his warm breath brushing up against the other's back.

"A bit..." Craig mumbles, trying to hide another shudder.

Kenny then wraps an arm around Craig's waist and moves even closer to him.

"What are you doing?" Craig asks, tensing slightly.

"The heat from our bodies will keep us warm," Kenny replies.

"That's true, but even so..." Craig trails off, not exactly sure how to explain this to him.

"I don't want you to be cold," Kenny murmurs into his back, his lips lightly brushing up against Craig with each word.

Craig is quiet for a few seconds as he tries to recompose himself again, "Alright..." he finally gets out.

He knew that the other was right about this, and that it was indeed a little bit chilly, especially on the cold ground. But even so, he knew that he most likely wouldn't be getting much sleep that night with Kenny being so close to him. Or because of all the heat coming off of the other's bare chest and seeping in to his back. But he tries his best to push away any strange thoughts he might slowly be developing, in favor of sleeping. It takes him some time, but eventually he falls in to a slumber.

When morning comes, it's no surprise that Craig wakes up feeling very stiff and tired. He had woken up a few times throughout the night, his mind being cluttered with all that had happened the day before. The group being separated, the worry of being found, what Kenny had told him, all of it. Although that last bit with Kenny troubled him the most. He looks down at his waist to see Kenny's arm was still there, wrapped around him. He let's out a small sigh then hears a voice from behind him.

"You're up," Kenny says.

Craig turns his head over to look at him, the other's face being right there when he does, "Yeah," he says quietly, "Did you get any sleep?"

"Not really," Kenny replies, the warmth of his breath brushing lightly on Craig's cheek.

"Same," Craig says and sits up, feeling like it was too early for this feeling to start up again.

Kenny sits up beside him, as Craig grabs the backpack. It was still a little damp but he figured it was dry enough and starts getting to work on packing things up again.

"Were you too cold last night? You were shivering quite a bit," Kenny says.

"...Yeah," Craig says zipping up the bag, "I wasn't wearing my sweater and was still a bit wet after all," he adds as he slides his shirt back on, which also was still damp along with his sweater.

"I see... guess I should have held you closer to me," Kenny says back.

Craig quickly looks away at that, not wanting any light in the area around them to give away the faint flush that was making it's self known on his face at those words.

"We'll take a quick look around for the others first, and if we don't see them or any sign of them, then we'll need to move on," Craig's says as he finishes zipping up his sweater.

After Kenny redresses as well, Craig slings the backpack on and they head out of the old warehouse. They look around the water port area for a while, looking for anything that might lead them to the others, but when they find none they decide to try looking closer to where the town is. Just as they are about to round a corner down a small street, Craig spots a familiar uniform on a man down it. He quickly ducks back behind the corner and turns to Kenny.

"We're leaving. It's too risky to stay here much longer," Craig tells him.

He wanted to look around some more for the others, but he knew that if they were indeed around. He would've seen some sort of trace of them by now. They usually left little signs in places if they were there, as a way to tell the others in the group that they were in the area if they got parted or something. Also there was the fact that the old empty buildings would've been the very first place they would've gone to, but they were nowhere to be seen. The awful feeling from before had started to rise in him again but he didn't want to linger on it. With that in mind, him and Kenny both turn and leave in another direction, away from the uniformed man. And eventually the town as well.


	20. Chapter 20

A couple of days later, Kenny and Craig come across another small town. One Craig had found on the map he had with him. He figured it would be good to take a break in it, because they seemed far enough away now. The sun was high in the sky, but there weren't too many people on the streets, just some here and there. As Craig looks around, he spots a clothing store, and the thought that maybe they should change clothes crosses his mind. One reason being so that they wouldn't be as easily recognized by those people who had seen them, and another being that their current clothes, weren't in the best shape. Kenny was missing an entire sleeve from his sweater where Craig had shot it, and it would get the odd look from anyone who they did see pass by them.

While looking at the other's missing sleeve, Craig also now notices that Kenny seemed to be slightly taller than him now, if only by about an inch. His gaze lingers a little to long and Kenny looks at him, causing him to immediately look away. When he looks forward again he spots something in the distance, a motel. He wonders to himself if it would be okay to stay at one for the night. He was pretty sure they were a good enough distance away for now, and he hadn't seen any of those uniformed people since then. With that in mind, he ends up deciding on it. As much as he didn't mind sleeping outside or in old abandon places, it was still nice to sleep in a bed sometimes.

"We're going to stay at a motel tonight," Craig informs the other.

"Motel?" Kenny repeats.

"Yeah, I think it would be good to sleep on a bed, instead of the hard ground tonight," Craig says.

When the two reach the motel, they enter it and come into a small lobby area. Craig then spots a person talking to the man behind the counter as he reaches a hand into his pocket, pulling out one of his many fake IDs for the transaction to come.

"Looks like we'll need to wait a bit," Craig says.

Kenny looks around and his gaze lands on one of the the big person-sized windows. He walks over to it and looks outside, not really watching anything in particular, just looking. Craig watches him briefly before he notices that the person talking to the man behind the counter leaves. He then goes up to the man next and gets a room, luckily with no trouble. A short while later, Kenny and Craig enter into a small cheap motel room with wooden walls, blinds that cover the windows, a single bed, an old wooden door to the side that lead in to the bathroom and a small worn out table with a lamp on it.

Craig makes his way over to the bed and places his backpack on it. "Alright," he says, "I'm going to go get some new clothes for us to wear. Because the ones we have on are recognizable by the ones who are chasing us, and we kind of stick out with all the shreds in them and stuff," he starts heading back to the door, "I shouldn't be to long, I saw a store on the way here not to faraway. In the meantime, why don't you go and take a shower. It will kill some time," he opens the door, "I'll take mine when I get back okay?"

"Alright," Kenny replies.

Craig smiles a bit at him, "Wait right here," he tells him before leaving the room.

While Craig didn't like the idea of leaving Kenny all on his own, he knew that it would be quicker for him to go to the store and back by himself. He also figured that if he ended up being spotted by those people somehow, then at least Kenny would be safe in the motel room while he could figure out a way to lose them or something.

When Craig returns some time later, carrying two big shopping bags with him, the sun was now lower in the sky and was nearing more closer to the start of evening time. He had ended up spending a bit longer than what he thought he would shopping.

"I'm back," he announces when entering back into the small room. However, he doesn't see the other one right away, "Kenny?" he calls walking over to the bathroom, but hears no reply.

When he checks the bathroom but sees that Kenny isn't there, a sense of panic starts to creep it's way up at the realization that he was gone. Craig's mind immediately scrambles, thinking that the worse may have happened while he was gone. That terrifying thought in his mind causes his heart to stop, and he drops the bags and rushes out of the room. He begins to frantically look around for him, and thoughts of regret that he shouldn't have ever left him alone rise. He starts running towards the main part of the building that the front desk was in, thinking to ask if they had seen him, when he spots something behind the motel out of the corner of his eye. He stops and looks when he realizes that, there, Kenny was, sitting in the grass with his back toward him, and facing the woods that were behind the motel. More than that though, he also sees that he was naked. He stares at him for a few more seconds, as if unsure, before slowly walking up to him.

"Kenny?" Craig calls hesitantly, "What are you doing out here?"

"...The air feels nice."

Craig let's out a sigh of relief hearing his voice, "I thought they had taken you. I was worried."

Kenny turns his head to look back at him, "Sorry."

Craig places a hand on his shoulder, "I'm just glad you're safe," as Kenny stares up at him, it's only then does he notice that Kenny's wet somewhat, and water is dripping from his hair. He moves a hand and touches a strand of his hair, "Umm, by the way... why are you out here naked and wet?" he asks, keeping his gaze trained up at Kenny's face.

"After I got out of the shower, I liked the way the cool air felt on my skin. And I didn't put the clothes on because you said they were recognizable and would stick out," Kenny explains.

"So does walking around like this," Craig shakes his head, "aren't you cold like this?"

Kenny looks down, "No..."

There's a bit of a silence as Craig looks at him, thinking of how different his behaviors are now, compared to before. But he understood why of course, with what he was told, and even with the state of how he found him. It all made sense. He remembers that when the two of them were trapped in that room together, they had each other to lean on during all the horrible things that happened to them, all the things they went through. But, Kenny was caught again, and had no one to lean on for years throughout all that torture. Craig was well aware that Kenny wasn't the same Kenny that he once knew, and that the old one was most likely gone for good. But even so, that didn't stop the fact that he still cared so deeply about him, or that he still meant so much to him.

Craig kneels down beside him and unzips his sweater, placing it over the other one's shoulders, "Let's get you back inside and change in to some new clothing," he says then stands up and extends a hand towards Kenny.

Kenny takes it and gets up and the two of them walk back to the room. Once back inside, Craig closes the door behind them and goes and picks up one of the bags he brought back from the store. He walks over to the bed with it and takes out a semi-long sleeved cream colored V-neck shirt, very dark brown jeans, then underwear and socks. Placing them all on the bed.

"These are the new clothes I bought for you go ahead and put them on. I'm going to take a shower," Craig says. He places the bag he was carrying down, and picks the other one up. As he heads for the bathroom with it, he stops before going in to look at Kenny with a look of concern on his face, "and please, don't go anywhere again."

"I won't," Kenny tells him.

With that Craig heads into the bathroom.

When Craig leaves the bathroom a while later, he comes out wearing a different set of clothes that he brought in with him. He now wore a white tank top and dark navy jeans, with socks. He places the pile of older clothes in his hand onto the ground next to the bathroom, along with the bag. When he looks over at the bed, he sees Kenny sitting on it, now wearing the clothes he had set out. Craig walks over and sits down next to him.

"Looks like they fit alright, I wasn't sure if they would or not," Craig says examining how the clothing fit on the other.

He notices that the pants seem to fit a little loose around Kenny, in contrast to his shirt that seemed to snug pretty close his torso and arms. He glances away from him when he's pretty sure that he can feel Kenny watching him from staring too long again. His gaze falls onto a window and sees the night sky starting to emerge.

"It's getting dark out, why don't we go to bed early tonight and get some proper rest?" Craig suggests and then lies down on his back. "I know I could use some good rest," he closes his eyes, "especially in a bed after so long..."

He feels a shift next to him and opens his eyes to look over at it. He sees Kenny now lying down on his back beside him, also facing up towards the ceiling. Craig smiles to himself and looks up to the ceiling as well.

"Goodnight Kenny," Craig says as he closes his eyes again.

"Night," Kenny replies. He glances over at Craig one more time before closing his own eyes as well.

When morning comes, Craig is greeted with bright sunlight shinning in his eyes. He lifts an arm up to shield them from it. There was window right above the bed, and the blinds weren't shut all the way, so the light was coming in at full force on him. As he goes to move, he feels something heavy on his chest. Although when he looks down at it's cause, he's not surprised to see that it's Kenny's arm. A thoughtful smile finds it's way on to Craig's face and he looks up and over to his side, seeing that Kenny's head was now resting next to him on the pillow. Kenny's hair almost looked like it was glowing in the light to him, creating a faint softness around his whole face, his eye lashes, his nose, his cheeks, his even more softer looking lips, suddenly Craig realizes just how close their faces are. He then sees Kenny's eyes start to open and he quickly looks up at the ceiling.

"It's bright," Kenny mumbles and sits up.

"Yeah," Craig says as he moves to sit up as well. He then gets out of bed and walks over to where the bag of clothing he took out for Kenny's clothes is. "It's probably going to start to get colder as the days go by now, with winter slowly coming up," he picks it up, " so I guess it's a good thing I also bought coats as well for us," he walks back over to the bed and pulls out, something orange, a parka. He looks at it before placing it down onto the bed in front of Kenny, "This is for you."

Kenny looks at it silently and runs his fingers lightly across it, "This..." he trails off.

"It's kind of like your old one," Craig says sheepishly, "it made me a bit nostalgic I guess," he let's out a nervous laugh when Kenny just continues to stare at it, "maybe I should have gotten a different coat instead."

"No," Kenny says and picks it up, "this is fine," he stands up with it and then puts it on. He looks up at Craig, "Thank you."

For a split second, Craig swears that he sees a younger Kenny standing before him, smiling at him, like he used to. Craig smiles at the image, then turns and walks over to the other bag. From it he takes out a blue jacket for himself, which he puts on. He then takes out a hat, that's also blue with a yellow puff on top of it and two long twirled strings hanging from it's ends. The hat was similar to the one he used to have, and because he was already on a nostalgic high when buying Kenny's coat, he ended up buying it as well. The reasons probably would seem silly to most, but for some reason, he couldn't help but be drawn to these items. He puts the hat on, then goes over to his backpack and puts it on as well.

"Okay, I'm going to get rid of our old clothes and return the key. Then we can head off," Craig says gathering the older torn clothes.

He walks over to the door then, kneels down and removes two rectangle boxes that were remaining in each of the bags. He then opens them and takes out two pairs of boots and places them next to the door. Then puts the older clothing and shoes into one of the empty bags, and the now empty shoes boxes into the other. He then puts on one of the pair of boots that are black, ties them up, and stands back up. As he gets back up, Kenny was now standing there looking at him.

"What is it?" Craig asks.

Kenny reaches a hand out and touches one of the twirled strings on Craig's hat, "This hat... it's like the one you had before," he says.

"I was, uh, feeling pretty nostalgic shopping yesterday," Craig says a bit awkwardly, averting his gaze. Kenny just stares at him and he vaguely wonders if Kenny was seeing an image from the past too, "Um, why don't you put on the new boots I got for you?" he suggests pointing to the other pair of boots that were brown. Kenny let's go of the twirled fabric and looks over at them briefly, before going and putting them on.

After the two of them are done getting ready, Craig takes another quick look around, making sure that nothing is left behind before they both exit the room. Craig spots a big dumpster bin next to the motel and heads over to it. When he finishes disposing of the clothes and stuff, he heads to the motel lobby and returns the key. Then the two of them continue on their way once more.


	21. Chapter 21

A few days pass by and the sun is high in the sky over looking a forest and a small lake. In one section of the forest, rests a small clearing where Craig is doing some routine training exercises. When he finishes, he lies down onto his back and takes in deep breaths to steady his breathing again. His tank and jacket were placed off to the side while he was training, so he could now feel as the light from the sun touched him. He closes his eyes after a few breaths and soaks up some rays from the sun on his skin.

"Are you done with your training today?" Kenny asks approaching him.

"Yeah," Craig replies placing his hands behind his head.

He and Kenny had traveled quite a ways by this point, and luckily hadn't seen anymore of those people in uniform running around anywhere. So for now, it seemed like they were in the clear. As he hears Kenny take a seat next to him, he can feel the tips of grass blades tickling at his skin as they danced in the faint cool breeze around him. It stays quiet between the two of them for a while until Craig feels something touching his chest. When he opens his eyes, he sees Kenny's fingers tracing along one of the small scars he has there.

"Your scars... they've healed well," Kenny says.

His fingers continue to move down Craig's chest and to his stomach, forming a thin line out of beaded sweat as they do so. They come to stop when they find another small scar resting just above the navel area. Craig looks back up at the sky and tries to keep his gaze focused at it while he feels Kenny continue to explore each of his faded scars. He feels Kenny's fingers eventually come to his pant's waistline, where he knew there was another small scar there, and feels them very lightly graze over top of it. He could swear that he feels the tip of one of Kenny's fingers almost teasingly slide under and along the top of his pants as they do so. And much as he tries not to, he can't help but shudder a bit because of it.

"Do you like it when I touch you like this?" Kenny asks glancing up at him.

"Huh?!" Craig exclaims, having been completely caught off guard by that question. He stares at him with wide eyes expecting him to say something else, but Kenny just stares at him with his usual expressionless face. "U-Um, you know what I just thought of? You should get a haircut," he says, trying to change this conversation to something other than what it was.

Kenny continues to stare at him for a few more seconds before replying,"Why?"

"Well, doesn't your hair get in the way?" Craig asks getting up and starts heading for his bag.

"Not really," Kenny says, also getting up and following after him.

"Oh, well I think you should still get one, because it feels like you're hidden behind it all. And if you get one, I can see you better," Craig smiles a bit.

The two reach a rock next to the lake, where Craig's backpack, tank and jacket had been left on top of. Craig pulls his tank top back on, and thinks briefly on stopping at a haircutters or something when they reach the next town, but decides against it. Instead he looks at his bag and goes through it, searching for something. When he finds it, he takes out a pair of scissors.

"Is it okay if I, um, cut your hair?" Craig asks holding them up and Kenny nods, "Alright then, take a sit," he motions at the rock, "and you might wanna take off your parka so that hair doesn't get stuck in it."

Kenny removes his parka and places it next to him on the rock, where Craig's still was. Craig then goes to stand behind him, getting ready to try this. He hadn't really cut anyone else's hair expect for his own while traveling. Although there were a few times that he had somehow ended up cutting Olivia's hair before, because she wanted him to for some reason or another. But still, it wasn't anything grand.

"If hair can get caught in my parka, wouldn't it get caught in my shirt too then?" Kenny asks.

"Yeah probably," Craig replies.

"Then shouldn't I take off my shirt too, so that it won't get caught?"

"Oh, uh if you want, you don't have..."

Before Craig can finish his sentence, Kenny is already taking off his shirt and placing it next to him on his other side. Craig then finds himself staring at Kenny's back. Noting how there wasn't a single scar or mark on it's pale surface. He's quickly pulled back to the current situation though, when the scissors in his hand glint some sunlight off of them and catch his eye.

"I'm going to start now," Craig announces.

"Okay."

Craig takes his free hand and runs it through Kenny's hair. It felt soft to touch. He then takes some strands and puts them between his index and middle fingers and begins to cut it. He goes at a moderate pace, taking his time as he works around Kenny's head. While snipping away, Kenny keeps his gaze downwards and something catches it. He notices something hanging out of Craig's jacket pocket and picks it up.

"This is..." Kenny says holding up a strip of old white cloth, causing Craig to look at it, "wasn't this what I used to wrap your finger with from back then?"

Craig's face flushes slightly, having been a bit embarrassed that he had seen it, "That.. it uh... I couldn't throw it away after my cut healed. Because it reminded me of you, so I held on to it..." he could feel his face flush more after realizing just how dumb he sounded, "that probably sounds really weird to you."

"No. It doesn't," Kenny responds and he places the old cloth back into the pocket, "it makes me glad to know that you had something to remind you of me."

Even though Kenny says that, it doesn't stop Craig from still feeling somewhat embarrassed about it. The two fall back in to a silence again as Craig continues cutting Kenny's hair, eventually making it around to his face.

"Alright, all that's left are the bangs," Craig says and leans forward slightly grabbing some hair between his fingers. Kenny looks up at him as he cuts each strand away and Craig finds it a bit hard to concentrate because of it. As he cuts the last bits away, he stands up straight, "There. Done. Now I can see you more clearly," he smiles.

Craig runs a hand through Kenny's now shortened hair. Waving it around and between his fingers. He then looks at Kenny as a whole, being able to see the full shape of his face now. Examining the curve of his nose, the shape of his jawline, his light eyebrows and long eye lashes. And it's then does Craig notice Kenny's eyes. It was the first time in a very long time that he was able to see them properly without one being shut, or having hair in front of them to obscure them. They were a brilliant baby blue, like how he had remembered them from long ago. More than that though, he also noticed how they were now staring right back in to his own stormy gray-blueish ones.

Craig moves his hand away, "Um, anyways, I'm done," he picks up his jacket and puts it on, Kenny doing the same by picking up his shirt. He's about to put it back on but Craig stops him, spotting a few hair strands on his back, "Wait a second," and he moves his hand across his back, wiping away the strands. As he does, he realizes just how pale Kenny's skin is. A part of him wondered if it had always been this pale, or if it had gotten more pale after all the years of being trapped inside of that place. In comparison, it made Craig's slightly tanned skin, seem even more tanner next to it.

Craig's thoughts couldn't help but keep on wandering about the other's skin as he moves his hand across it. Feeling how smooth, firm and warm it is to touch. He gilds his fingers to the center of Kenny's upper back and lightly spreads them, bringing his palm gently down onto the skin. He soon finds himself wondering what it might feel like if his skin where up on Kenny's, moving up and down against it in a heated friction between them. As his mind delve deeper in to those thoughts, his fingers started to move so that the tips of his nails were now very lightly pressing against Kenny's skin.

"It feels good," Kenny's voice suddenly says, interrupting Craig's thoughts.

Craig feels his heart stop and quickly withdraws his hand, "W-What?!"

"When you run your fingers through my hair. It feels good," Kenny adds.

"O-Oh," Craig murmurs, realizing what he had meant.

"Are you done now?" Kenny asks looking back at him.

"Uh, yeah. I was just wiping away some strands of hair that were on your back."

Kenny puts his shirt back on and then gets up and puts his parka on. He looks at Craig after, who quickly looks away and puts the scissors back into his bag. Craig had only just noticed it now, after cutting away several inches of Kenny's hair, how attractive he had grown up to be. He then sits down on the rock and takes out a candy bar from his bag as Kenny sits back down next to him and looks at it. Craig offers it to him but he shakes his head, and a look of concern can't help but make it's way on to Craig's face.

"You haven't eaten once since you've been out of that place," Craig says, and he takes a small bite out of the bar.

"I'm just not hungry."

"Why?"

"I think it's because of the nutriment serum that was injected in me."

"Oh, that stuff..." Craig says, recalling a clear liquid that had been injected in to them to sustain their lives during the experiments.

It was true that when they were injected with that stuff, they wouldn't get hungry. But when Craig got away from that place, he had started to feel hunger again after a few days, and he had that stuff in him for six months. However in Kenny's case, it had been much longer. He had that stuff injected in him for about six years. So he would most likely have much longer term effects than what Craig had.

Craig takes another bite from the bar and tries not to think on the matter anymore as the two of them stare out over the lake in silence, watching as the wind creates ripples in it.

 **…**

Later on that day, Craig and Kenny come across another town. As they pass by a convenience store, Craig remembers that they are low on food supplies and decides that they should take a quick stop there in order to stock up again. But as they near the front doors of the building, Kenny stops.

"I'm going to wait out here," he says and Craig gives a confused look, "to keep a look out," he adds.

"Oh, okay," Craig says, it was probably a good idea now that he thought about it.

Craig enters the store and the door sets off a small ding signaling his presence there now. He takes a look around the small store and quickly gathers a few snacks and stuff before making his was up to the cash register. The two of them had been lucky so far as to not see anymore of those people after them, but Craig wondered just how long that would last. He knew they wouldn't give up so easily on wanting to get Kenny back, and he figured that it would only be a matter of time or something. Either way, he wasn't going to let them ever take Kenny back to that place. As he finishes getting ringed up and paying for the stuff, his eyes fall onto a small sign on the counter that reads.

 _'YOU'RE BEING WATCHED.'_

Craig looks up to see a surveillance camera aimed down at where he's standing. A subtle looming feeling crawls it's way up in to him, but he tries not to dwell on it and only pulls the front of his hat down a bit as he grabs the bag of stuff he bought and leaves. He exits, and the door makes a small ding noise again. When he steps back outside he notices that the sun was now starting to set, and that he didn't see Kenny standing in the same spot where he last was. He walks over to the side of the building, and luckily before any panic sets in, he spots him sitting down and leaning his back against the wall.

"Kenny?" Craig says walking over to him.

As he reaches him, he notices that Kenny's eyes are closed and wonders if maybe he fell asleep. He crouches down in front of him and looks at him, and soon enough a small smile spreads across his face. He couldn't help but find himself doing that whenever he saw the other one's sleeping face, probably because of how peaceful Kenny looked while like this. Craig's eyes carefully wander over Kenny's features again and he finds them landing on his lips again. He stares at them for a couple seconds before raising his free hand up and lightly placing it on his cheek, he then runs his thumb gently over Kenny's lips. They felt so soft to him. So. Very. Soft. He traces his thumb over them once more, parting them slightly, before he finds himself slowly being drawn in closer to them. Inch by inch, his eyes gradually starting to shut as he draws in ever closer to Kenny. He's about to close them all the way when something catches his vision at the last second and he stops. A pair of baby blue eyes were now staring back at him. He quickly pulls both his hand and face away, and stares at Kenny surprised. His heart feeling like it was going to explode any moment in his chest, and his face suddenly also feeling as if it was on fire.

Craig quickly looks away from Kenny's gaze and gets to his feet fast, "Uh-um- w-we sh-should get a move on! It's getting dark out!"

Kenny looks at him, "Were you about to-"

"Come on!" Craig says cutting him off, and starts walking away.

Kenny watches him take a few more steps, before getting up and following after him. They walk until they come across a motel, which Craig suggests staying at because it had been a few days since staying at the last one, and the coast seemed to be in the clear. So they head into the lobby area and Craig walks up to the front desk, where a woman was managing it.

"One room," Craig says. His thoughts were still wandering to what had happened earlier, so he almost doesn't hear what the woman says next.

"One room with a double bed," the woman says and writes something down.

Craig's eyes widen, "Oh uh- no, two single beds," he says quickly as the scenes from before kept on replaying out in his mind. He didn't think that he would be able to sleep next to the Kenny that night without feeling very awkward or something.

"Oh..." the woman looks between the two of them, "you two aren't together?"

Craig's eyes go even wider as a faint flush appears on his cheeks, "N-No!" the word comes out of his mouth before he can stop it, and he tenses a bit when he's certain he can feel Kenny looking at him.

"I see, sorry then. Right, two singles it is," the woman says and writes something else down.

Craig gets the room key and they head over to their designated room number. The whole way there though, he could swear that Kenny was watching him, but he didn't say anything. So Craig silently prayed that he somehow, miraculously, didn't hear his unintended response before, but that was very unlikely. When they reach their room they head in and Craig sets his backpack and small plastic bag down on couch that was in it. He looks around it, noting that it was both bigger and nicer than the last motel they stayed at. Having two single beds with lamps placed on nightstands resting next to them, a small table, bathroom, T.V, carpet flooring, white walls and an AC that he was pretty sure they wouldn't be needing that night.

Craig turns to face Kenny, "I thought you might like to have a bed all to yourself this time, and not have to worry about sharing space or something like that with me tonight. And I think you'll be more comfortable taking up as much space as you want," he explains.

Truth be told though, he just didn't know how to keep on dealing with Kenny sleeping so close to him every night. For the most part he could deal with it, but as soon as he felt the other move or anything behind him, his heart rate would start to pick up and he wouldn't be able to sleep again for a long while. Which would most likely be the same results of that night as well, especially after all that had happened during that day's events. He knew there was no way he could sleep next to him and be alright. Too many things happened, and he felt like if anything else more did, he might internally combust or something. He just needed a bit of space, even if only for one night.

"I'm going to take a quick shower," Craig says before heading into the bathroom. When he closes the door behind himself, he let's out a sigh.

When Craig finishes in the bathroom some time later, he's holding his jacket and hat on one arm and using a towel to dry his hair with the other. He notices that Kenny seems to be sleeping on one of the beds now as he sets down his hat and jacket on the small table. He then goes over to the other bed, and sits down. When he finishes drying off his hair, he sets the towel down on the small nightstand next to the bed and flops down backwards onto the bed. He could feel tiredness starting to take over as he closes his eyes, but something causes his bed to dip down a bit and he opens them again. Kenny was now sitting beside him, looking down at him.

"Um..." Craig says, feeling a bit awkward, "why don't you go and take a shower now, to wash away any hair strands that might still be left on you?"

Kenny stares at him for a long moment, "Alright..." he says and stands up.

Kenny then unzips his parka, taking it off and setting it down. He then grabs at the bottom of his shirt and slowly lifts it up. As the bottom of it is pulled over his head, Craig's eyes can't help but wander down the stretched torso before them, examining how Kenny's skin stretches over every one of the muscles underneath it. As Kenny finishes removing his shirt, Craig looks back up at his face, seeing that he was now looking right at him. Kenny then sets down his shirt with one hand, while the other begins to unbutton his pants. It's only when Craig sees Kenny starting to unzip his pants, does his face redden and he sits up fast.

"Undress in the bathroom please!" Craig exclaims.

"Why?" Kenny asks.

"Just do it!" Craig tells him, his face getting a deeper red.

Kenny doesn't say anything, he just watches Craig for a few more seconds before he turns and heads into the bathroom. When the door to it shuts, Craig let's out a long sigh and lies back down. He didn't want to end up doing something, because he felt it was not right to Kenny after all that he'd been through. However if Kenny kept on doing strange things like that, it was going to drive him insane. He stares up at the ceiling with tired eyes, feeling them get heavy. He closes them when he hears the shower turn on a short while later, and soon enough was drifting off in to sleep.

 **…**

Craig finds himself standing in another completely dark place. Any sense of direction he had, felt void in what ever this space was. He comes to the conclusion that he's trapped all alone here, after looking around and not seeing anyone or anything, but not too long after a voice calls out.

"Craig?"

He recognized the voice instantly, so when he turns around to face it he's not too surprised to see Kenny there. He's about to ask him something when a sharp, stabbing-pain in his head starts. He quickly brings his hands to his head wanting it to stop.

"Craig, what's wrong?" Kenny asks now walking towards him.

The pain felt like it grew more and more in Craig's head with each step that Kenny took towards him. It had started to become unbearable to the point where he felt like he might kneel over and die. It was almost as if, someone had taken a jackhammer and begun drilling it into his skull, chipping away from the inside piece by piece. When Kenny gets within a few feet away from him, sparks start to form in his eyes against his will to do so.

"Stay back!" Craig yells.

But Kenny keeps walking towards him, "What's-"

"Stop!" Craig screams.

It's then does he make the grave mistake of looking up at him. Because the second that he does, a quick rush of violent sparks shoot out of his eyes. There's a blinding bright light for a split second and when it disappears, fading into the nothingness, it leaves behind a hole.

Craig's eyes widen with horror, "No..." he whispers.

Kenny had stopped walking towards him now and instead brings up a shaky hand to the bloody hole that was now in the center of his chest. He moves his hand away slightly and looks down at it, watching as his blood dripped off his fingers and down his arm.

"Craig... why?" Kenny says then looks up at him, "Why did you do this to me?" blood had begun to spill from his mouth now, "Why did you..." his voice started to sound heavy with wetness, but the next set of words he said were as clear as day to Craig, "Murder me?"

"No!" Craig screams, "I-I didn't mean to-"

Kenny's hand falls to his side, "I thought that you..." before he can finish though, his eyes close and he falls to the ground. A pool of almost completely black crimson-red blood begins forming around his now lifeless body.

Craig watches as the orange of Kenny's parka starts to dye a deep red, and for a moment there's a good second of deafening silence before his mouth opens and he screams falling down onto his knees. Sharp, bitter, stinging tears fall from his eyes as he gasps for air trying to breathe. Each sob that escaped him, felt like it was making it harder and harder for him to breathe, until he no longer could anymore. As a suffocating, smothering feeling begins to fill his lungs, he finds himself falling into darkness once again.

 **…**

Craig's eyes shoot wide open and he quickly looks around, only to see that he's now staring up at the same ceiling he saw before passing out. His breathing slowly starts to return to normal when he realizes that it was only a dream. As he gradually starts becoming more aware of his surroundings, he notices that he is now covered in a cold sweat. He also notices that a familiar mess of blond hair was lying next to him again.

All he can feel is relief though, seeing that Kenny was fine. However, Kenny's hair seemed to be wet, so Craig turns a bit and grabs the towel that was placed on the small nightstand. He begins to dry off Kenny's hair, thinking that he probably didn't dry it off again because he liked how the cool air felt on his skin or something. It's only then does Craig now notice that Kenny is also not wearing anything as he glances down. As soon as he sees that, he looks back up, trying hard not to let his eyes wander down again. As he moves the towel away, after finishing up drying his hair, he sees that Kenny is now awake.

"Did I wake you?" Craig asks softly, "Sorry, your hair was still wet," he looks away, "but, um, why are you sleeping in my bed?"

"...You seemed like you were having a bad dream," Kenny says, "so I came and laid down next to you," he looks at Craig for a few more seconds before bringing up a hand and running his thumb lightly across Craig's cheek, "there are tears in your eyes."

As soon as Craig is told that, he quickly sits up and turns his head, wiping them away, "Anyways, I'm okay now. So you don't need to sleep beside me," he tells him.

"I want to sleep beside you though."

Craig looks back at him surprised, "Huh?"

"I don't want to sleep alone. I like it when you're beside me. I like it when you're near me," Kenny states more clearly and he places a hand on top of Craig's.

"O-Oh..." Craig murmurs. He had figured that Kenny probably found comfort in lying next to him or something, like that of when they were younger. With a small sigh, he lies back down in bed, "I'll stay right here then," he decides in the end that if it helps out Kenny in someway, then he could deal with a bit of discomfort. Although he wasn't sure if he could deal with him being completely naked, "But, um, aren't you cold like that?"

"No," Kenny replies.

"Really? You're making me cold looking at you," Craig chuckles to himself.

Kenny looks at him, "Then keep me warm."

"W-What?!" Craig stammers out.

Kenny moves next to him and opens his arms, "Come."

To say that Craig's face was red, would be an understatement. Because not only was it his face, he was also pretty sure that his whole body had started all turning the same shade of red at Kenny's very bold words. Although he wasn't quite sure if Kenny even knew what he was saying even sounded like to him. Craig suddenly found it very hard to move properly as he somewhat stiffly moved into Kenny's arms.

"Um... I'm not sure if there will be enough room for both of us on here," Craig murmurs awkwardly.

"I'll keep you close then," Kenny tells him.

Kenny wraps an arm under and around Craig's head, so that he was lying on it, and wraps the other around his upper back. He then brings Craig's head in close to his chest, so that his forehead was now touching it. The two then stayed like that for a good while, as Kenny rested his chin on Craig's head. And as more time slowly passed by, Craig had started to calm down a bit, thinking that this was alright and that he could probably manage to fall asleep like this. So he slowly wrapped his free arm, that wasn't trapped between their two bodies, around Kenny's waist. He could feel Kenny's still damp skin brushing against his arm as he did so, but tried to ignore it. However that thought was quickly thrown out the window as he felt something move.

Kenny's hand slowly begun to move down Craig's back. It kept on moving further down until it came to his pants waistline. Craig could then feel as one by one, Kenny's fingers crept under his tank's hemline, and begun to move lightly across his skin. The sensation of them made Craig shiver a bit.

"Kenny...?" Craig mumbles out quietly.

"You're so warm," Kenny says back in a low hushed voice.

Kenny's hand then moves up along the side of Craig's stomach, then slowly back down it, his nails gently playing along his skin. With each movement across Craig's skin, it felt like it was being set aflame. And no matter how much Craig tried to push the feeling that was forming in him, he couldn't stop it. Kenny's hand moves up along the whole of his back, pressing his nails a bit harder into his skin, they keep on doing that until his fingers reach the top of Craig's pants again. Just when Craig thinks he might be done, he feels Kenny's fingers slip under his pants and underwear. He feels them gradually move down one side of his backside and come to a stop. He then feels Kenny's nails dig lightly into his skin again and move back up, causing a tingling sensation to run up his spine. They stop right before leaving his pants and move back down. This time though, going down the center. And he can feel as one of them lightly begins to push it's way up and along between him. Suddenly this all starts becoming too much for him and he feels like at any moment, he might completely spill over. And in the next moment he does, as a small, but very audibly moan escapes from between his lips, along with a quite noticeable shiver. The second he realizes the sound he's made, he bites down hard on his bottom lip as if that will somehow take it back. Kenny's hand stops then, and he moves his hand back to the outside of Craig's pants and up to rest on his back again.

"Goodnight," Kenny says quietly, shifting his head down and kissing Craig's forehead lightly, before moving it back up.

Craig having been completely confused by everything only says, "G-Goodnight," back.

And then it's quiet. Kenny was no longer moving around next to him and Craig was lying there wide awake and confused, wondering what the hell just happened. He didn't know why Kenny had done that and then suddenly stopped so abruptly. A part of him thought that he should be glad it stopped, but he wasn't, he was far from it actually. Because now he wasn't only confused, he was also very, _very_ , frustrated. His heart was beating exceedingly loud in his eardrums, to the point where he thought they might burst, his whole body was hot and sweaty, his thoughts were racing all over the place and he had some other feelings going on in his body that he knew _wouldn't_ be going away anytime soon. Part of him felt like he was being teased almost for some reason.

When morning the next day comes, it's no surprise that Craig had barely gotten any sleep from that night. He had ended up just lying there, unmoving from his position the whole night. As he finishes zipping up his bag, he let's out a small disgruntled sound. His thoughts still swarming with what had happened, all the touching and feeling and lips being pressed on his forehead. He still didn't know where the hell that all came from and, to top it all off, he had even made an embarrassing sound. Craig felt the heat start to rise in his face and he quickly shoved the memory down and away. He felt irritated and had only wanted to focus on the task at hand, which was to keep on moving.

When Craig looks up from his bag, he sees Kenny watching him and he quickly looks back down at it. Kenny was all dressed now and ready to go, he was just waiting on him. So Craig slings his bag on and starts heading for the door. As he opens it, he is greeted with a wall of cold air hitting his face. So cold in fact, that he could see his breath in the air. He steps outside and shivers a bit as a cold breeze passes by. When Kenny steps out next to him, he turns and shuts the door.

"I'm going to hand in the room key real quick and then we can head off," Craig says, and starts heading for the motel lobby, "Wait right here, I'll be back in a second."

So Kenny does, and about a minute or so later Craig joins back up with him and they set off once again.

* * *

 **A/N: Chapter updates will probably be a bit slow from this point onwards, as this year is turning out to be quite a busy one for me.**


	22. Chapter 22

Sometime later, as evening starts to fall. The two found themselves now walking through a city. The streets brimmed with the hustle and bustle of cars and people all heading in every which way. Although with night fast approaching, the streets would most likely would start to lessen up a bit.

"Lots of people..." Kenny observes.

"Yeah, big cities always have a lot of people in them," Craig replies.

"Cities..." Kenny murmurs, "so this is what they're like."

A sudden realization hits Craig then. That being that Kenny had never been in a city before. When they were kids, back at the orphanage, they only ever stayed there pretty much their whole lives. Then there was the fact that Kenny had been locked up deep underground for six years. That meant this was probably the first time that he had seen so many people, cars, stores, and so many tall buildings in one place before.

"Yeah..." Craig says, the thought causing his brow to furrow a bit.

Kenny's gaze lands on a tall building and follows it up to the sky, "A storm is coming..."

Craig looks at him confused for a moment, then follows his gaze upwards to the sky as well. There were big, dark, ominous looking clouds in it, the evening sky behind them only showing pink and red edges around them as the rest of the clouds started to fade away in to the darkness.

"Looks like it," Craig says looking back down, "guess we should find a place to stay before it hits then."

Unlike with small towns though, staying at a hotel or motel was out of the question in cities. There were too many eyes, and that didn't only mean people. Craig would actually prefer that they try and pass through this city as quickly as possible if he was being honest. He felt much more exposed in cities compared to anywhere else.

As they turn down another street, a gust of cold wind goes past them and Craig can feel his face slowly becoming numb from the below temperature weather. He shivers a bit and glances down at Kenny's hands, noticing that he hasn't put them in his pockets to keep them warm at all.

"Aren't your hands cold?" Craig asks worried.

Kenny looks at them for a moment, "No."

"Seriously?" Craig says in disbelief.

He knew that Kenny's senses were numb, but could he really not feel how cold it was outside. Craig was shivering each time a gust of wind blew past. There was no way Kenny wasn't cold. Without thinking, Craig takes out one of his hands from his pockets and slips it around Kenny's. The moment his hand touches Kenny's, he can feel just how cold it really is.

"You're freezing!" Craig exclaims.

Kenny glances down at their hands and gently squeezes Craig's, "You're hand is warm."

It's only then does it hit Craig that he was now holding Kenny's hand. He had been feeling a bit awkward around Kenny that day, after the previous night's events, that he hadn't really been saying to much to him. Or had offered his hand like usual.

"Can you keep mine warm with yours?" Kenny asks.

"Sure," Craig mumbles, looking away.

Craig feels Kenny's hand move around in his, until their fingers intertwine with one another. He then feels Kenny's hand squeeze his a bit harder. The action causes a small beat to skip and in response, he squeeze's back as a faint smile spread on his face.

As they continue down the street, music could be heard off in the distance, getting louder with each step. There also seemed to be lights getting more brighter as they went along. As they reach the end of the street, they end up coming to an open area, like a park ground or something. The music was now very loud and lights were flashing all over. There were booths set up everywhere, and a lot of people that seemed to be busying themselves with them or walking around. However, the thing that stood out the most was the giant stage that was set up a bit further on. There were a ton of people standing around it.

"What is this?" Craig asks looking around. He spots a banner hanging off of a tall lamp post and reads it aloud, "Fright Week Festival?"

Curious, they enter the park. Once doing so, Craig can now see that there were a few people in costumes behind some of the booths. As they continue looking around they eventually make their way to the stage where the music was now blaring at it's loudest and the lights were going crazy. There was a band of some sort playing on it in costume, and everyone around them was either singing along to the song or throwing their hands up in the air. Craig catches Kenny saying something to him, but it gets drowned out in the music.

"What!?" Craig shouts.

Kenny then leads him out of the large crowd of people, and away from the loud blaring music. They come to a stop when reaching a small pond and fewer people now were.

"Too loud," Kenny says, "I like it when it's more quiet."

"Same," Craig chuckles lightly. He feels his stomach growl then and pulls out a half candy bar from his pocket, after not finishing it before. It dawns on him then, that he still had yet to eat today. He didn't really notice before because he had too much on his mind. He looks at Kenny, "Want some?" he offers.

Kenny shakes his head, "I'm good."

"Oh come on, try some," Craig insists and lets go of his hand so he can pull the wrapper down, "you haven't eaten anything at all."

"That's because-"

"I know, the serum," Craig interrupts, "but..." he breaks off a piece of chocolate and holds it out. "I still think you should try a bit. Just to see how food tastes to you after so long."

Kenny looks at the piece of chocolate then back at Craig who smiles a bit. A few more seconds go by and Kenny eventually leans down to Craig's hand and eats it. His lips pressing lightly against Craig's finger tips as he does.

"It's... sweet," Kenny says straightening back up. He looks at Craig whose eyes are slightly widen, "Craig?"

"Huh?" Craig says, seeming to come back now.

"It's sweet," Kenny repeats.

"Oh- yeah, it's a candy bar. So they're usually pretty sweet," Craig says breaking off a piece for himself.

"It's been a long time since I've had such a familiar taste," Kenny says.

"I know..." Craig says quietly.

He goes to put the piece of chocolate in his mouth but stops and looks at his fingers, thinking on how Kenny's lips had touched them. The thought causes his chest to tighten a bit and he slowly brings the chocolate to his lips, slipping it into his mouth. His fingers lightly pushing against his lips as he does so. Having been so wrapped up in what he was doing, he doesn't notice right away when he catches Kenny watching him again.

"W-What?" Craig asks, and Kenny gives him a somewhat curious look. "It's just that... ever since you've been out of that place, you keep on looking at me like that. Why?"

"Does it bother you?"

"No, it's not that. I'm just... curious is all. I mean there's got to be more interesting things around us to look at other than me right?" Craig murmurs awkwardly.

"That's because..." Kenny pauses for a moment, "A part of me still can't believe that this is all real. That this is all not still somehow a dream, and that I might wake up from it at any moment now. And if that were to turn out to be the case then..." he lifts a hand up and gently moves a bang away from Craig's face. "I want you to be the last thing that I see."

"Oh," Craig replies quietly and glances down.

He still wasn't quite used to how blunt and straightforward Kenny was now about how he felt. And a part of him wished that he could be just as open like him, without the words getting caught in his throat or getting all awkward and shy about it. As Craig looks off in to his thoughts, he sees something small and white fall in front of him. When he looks up he sees that it's slowly falling down from all around them.

"It's snowing," he thinks aloud, noting that the sun was no longer in the sky, as it was now a dark navy blue. He shivers again as another cold breeze goes by.

"Are you cold?" Kenny asks.

"A bit," Craig replies, "maybe we should-" he's cut off when a pair of arms suddenly wrap around him. "W-What are you..."

"I'll try to keep you warm than," Kenny says holding him tighter.

Kenny was holding onto him so closely now, he could faintly feel Kenny's breath ghosting over the surface of his neck, causing him shiver again. One of Kenny's arms was wrapped around his shoulders above his backpack, while the other one was much lower, resting just under it. Kenny then moves his head into the corner of Craig's neck, where a small space of exposed skin, resting between the top of his jacket and bottom of his hat was. He then presses his lips to the exposed skin, which in turn causes Craig's heart beat to speed up. He would've tried to hug back, if his arms weren't currently trapped between their bodies, along with the candy bar. So instead he closes his eyes and leans into Kenny more. For some reason, it started to feel as if they were the only two in the world right now to him. Almost as if, everything else around them had started to fade away in to nothingness, and only him and Kenny existed. He begun to feel warmer then, wishing that this moment, that this small world of only the two of them, would last forever. Just them leaning into one another so closely, almost as if their hearts were beating as one.

"Craig," Kenny says quietly as he shifts his head against him. "They're here."

And suddenly, the small world Craig had imagined around them comes crashing down.

* * *

 **A/N: I want to let you guys know, that I've made a playlist for this story as well. So I'm going to list all of the songs for it down below in case you guys are curious what's on it, and/or want to take a listen to it while reading this story.**

 **1.** **Breathe Me** \- _Sia_

 **2.** **Circles** \- _Hollywood Undead_

 **3.** **Beside You** - _Marianas Trench_

 **4.** **Louder Than Thunder** \- _The Devil Wears Prada_

 **5.** **Lung** \- _Vancouver Sleep Clinic_

 **6.** **I Wouldn't Mind** \- _He Is We_

 **7.** **Someone to Stay** - _Vancouver Sleep Clinic_

 **8.** **Enigmatic** - _In Fear and Faith_

 **9.** **Sell Your Soul** \- _Hollywood Undead_

 **10.** **Leave Out All The Rest** \- _Linkin Park_

 **11.** **The Return of Thunder** \- _The Last Sighs Of The Wind_

 **12.** **Pieces** \- _Red_

 **13.** **Dear Agony** \- _Breaking Benjamin_

 **14.** **Broken Down** \- _Sevendust_

 **15**. **There For You** \- _Flyleaf_

 **16.** **May I** \- _Trading Yesterday_

 **17.** **Dream Catcher** \- _In Fear and Faith_

 **18.** **Let the Sparks Fly** \- _Thousand Foot Krutch_

 **19.** **Euphoria** \- _The Last Sighs Of The Wind_

 **20.** **Dance With The Devil** \- _Breaking Benjamin_

 **21.** **My Demons** \- _Starset -_ (Story's Main Theme Song)

 **22.** **Somebody to Die Fo** r - _Hurts_

 **23\. Your Hand in Mine** \- _Explosions in the Sky_

 **You can also take a listen to this playlist in full, if you go on to the 8Tracks site and search/type in 'Dolor Peace Playlist'. (It should pop up right away in the results.)** **I would highly recommend taking a listen to it in full, to get a better feel/tone of the story's overall setting.**


	23. Chapter 23

Craig had never gone from feeling one strong emotion to the next so fast in his life. Hearing Kenny say those words sent a cold chill through him. And he wanted to believe with everything that he had that they weren't real.

"Are you sure? What if it's just some people in costumes?" Craig asks tentatively.

"They're not," Kenny replies, "I recognize their clothing anywhere."

Craig feels something drop in the pit of his stomach, "Where are they exactly?"

"They're standing some ways back, behind your current line of sight. Over by some of the booths, I don't think we've been spotted yet."

"Alright... Let's try and slip out of here unnoticed then."

Kenny let's go of him and they turn and start heading off. However, Craig gets a nagging feeling and decides to look back over his shoulder, only to see the uniformed men were slowly starting to weave their way towards them through the crowd of people.

"Shit," Craig swears and quickly grabs Kenny's hand, "we've been spotted- let's go!" he shoves the candy bar back into his pocket with the other hand as they break out into a run.

Craig didn't know how the hell they found them, but he didn't have time to think about that now. All he could think of right now was getting out of there. They run out of the park, weaving in and around crowds of people, and head down a street. Craig had hoped to try and lose them in the ongoing stream of passersby walking down it. But when he spots some more of those familiar uniforms down the street in front of them, he takes a quick turn with Kenny down an alleyway.

As they run down it, he can hear voices behind them start to shout. Just as they reach a turn at the end of it, a bullet whizzes by Craig's face.

"Fuck!" he exclaims and looks back down the alley to see the uniformed men now holding guns, "Great, guns."

They round the corner and find that it leads out of the alleyway. Soon after, they come across some old buildings that seem to be abandon and Craig spots an old fire escape ladder hanging down from one of them.

"Up there!" he points at it.

They stop underneath it and pull the old rusty ladder down with a bit of resistance. They manage to both climb up it just as their pursuers come around the corner. When they reach the top, Craig stands next to it and gives it a hard kick, causing the ladder to break off and fall with a loud clang. They then continue up the rest of the fire escape. Some more shots are fired at them, and Craig comes to a stop by a window, and quickly breaks it in with a blast.

"In here!" Craig instructs and jumps through the broken window.

As he does so, something sharp and hot hits him. He lands onto his knees and a very sudden wave of pain shoots through his leg, causing him to fall over onto his side and grab a hold of it. Kenny lands next to him a second later, and looks at him as he let's out a cry of pain.

"What's wrong?" Kenny asks hunching down next to him.

"It's my leg," Craig says and moves his hands away from it, seeing that they were now stained red.

"Was it cut on something?"

"No..." Craig strains out, "I think, I was shot."

He could see a small hole on his upper right thigh, as blood started to trail down his leg in a thin stream. Despite how much it hurt though, he tried to force himself to get back up with a grunt. He knew that they didn't have long before they would be followed in to the building. He manages to stand up for all of two seconds before he feels himself lose balance, and start to fall. Kenny catches him quickly and helps support him up right by placing an arm around his back.

"You shouldn't move," Kenny tells him.

"We can't stay here," Craig says back..

Craig was pretty sure by this point, that the entrances and exits around the building would most likely already be blocked off by the time they got down to the first floor. He looks around the room they were in and it seemed like they were in an old office building of some sort now. At least, judging by the tables and chairs that were left over. The two slowly make their way out of the room and into a hall, looking down both ways of it before Craig motions for them to head towards the direction of a staircase. As they get to the staircase, they start to head up it instead of down. Pain hits Craig immediately as he tries to push up the first step with his injured leg, causing him to stop right away and cringe in pain.

"Craig..." Kenny says quietly.

Craig shakes his head, "I'm fine. Let's just keep moving," he tells the other and continues his slow, painful endeavour up the stairs.

They reach the top floor and walk through a doorway leading into another hall. They walk down it until they come across a room near the end of it that they hide in. Craig thought, that while they had the bit of time they did, that he could use it to think up a plan or something. There had to be some way out of all this, he just hadn't thought of a solution yet. As they enter the room, Kenny directs Craig towards a wall and carefully let's go of him as Craig leans against it and slides down into a sitting position, with his legs out in front of him. Craig hisses a bit in pain as he settles down, the wound in his leg feeling like someone had dug a knife into it and set it on fire. He turns his leg so that he can get a better look at it, seeing as a big splotch of blood was continuing to spread around it.

Kenny sits down on a knee next to him and looks at it, "It's bleeding quite a bit."

"Yeah, but I think I'll be fine," Craig tries to tells him.

Kenny continues to stare at it intently, "...We should take a proper look at it, pull your pants down."

"Huh?!" Craig exclaims confused.

"I want to make sure it's nothing too bad. But the blood is making it hard to tell," Kenny adds.

"I-I told you already, it's fine. It doesn't even hurt that much. Besides we don't have time for-"

"You're lying," Kenny says, cutting him off.

Craig looks at him, "What? No I'm not."

"Yes you are," there's an almost intense look in Kenny's eyes when he says it, "I can tell that you're in a lot of pain right now. I could always tell how you..." he trails off.

"How I what?"

"It's nothing," Kenny says and looks back at the wound, "now let me take a look at it," with that he reaches for the button of Craig's jeans.

Craig grabs quickly at his hands,"W-Wait! I told you-"

"Craig," Kenny says in a tone that the other hadn't heard before, "let me see it," and there's something there. Something very faint just barely scratching on the surface of his features, but it was there.

Worry.

Craig averts his gaze elsewhere, "Fine..."

With that, Kenny goes to undo his button again, but Craig gently pushes his hands away and undoes it himself. He pulls his pants down to his knees, being as careful as he can about it. While also making sure that he doesn't accidentally pull his underwear down along with them. He then turns his leg so that Kenny can get a better look at the wound. A part of him thought that he should have just kept on trying to say he was fine, and focus on getting out of here as fast as possible. But, when he saw that faint look in Kenny's expression, any fight he had against this, 'not so well timed out exam', left him.

"The bag," Kenny says.

It takes Craig a second to realize that he's talking about his backpack. He leans forward then so that Kenny can take it off him. When Kenny gets it off, he opens it and takes out a small face cloth, then he brings it to the wound and begins to dab at it. Craig can't help but wince a bit because of it. When Kenny finishes wiping most of the blood around it away, he runs his thumb very lightly over it as fresh blood was starting to appear again.

"The bullet is stuck in your leg," Kenny tells him, "if we could take it out, I could heal you."

"We don't have enough time to do that though," Craig points out.

"You're right..." Kenny says quietly. He goes through the bag again and takes out a bandage roll and scissors. "The bullet will need to stay in for now. I can't heal you with it still in your leg, or it might get stuck there," he moves a hand to the side of Craig's leg, "lift your leg up," Craig does and he wraps the bandage around his leg a few times.

The action seemed strangely reminiscent to Craig for some reason. Like something of this had happened once long ago. Before he can figure out just what it is, he winces as Kenny cuts and tightly fastens the bandage in place.

"Sorry," Kenny apologizes, "I just want to make sure nothing gets in it, or that you end up bleeding out because of it," he finishes up and puts away the remaining bandage roll and scissors. "I'm relieved that it didn't hit you anywhere else. When that one bullet went right by your face earlier... if it hadn't have missed you then..."

Kenny falls silent, but Craig doesn't need him to finish to know what he means. Because unlike with Kenny, he can't come back if something happens to him. There are no second chances if he dies. And a part of him knew that Kenny was worried about him because of that. Even with the almost expressionless face that Kenny wore all the time now, he could still tell that Kenny was worried about him.

Kenny places his hand back on Craig's leg, seeming to be thinking over the same thing Craig was. He suddenly moves closer to Craig and leans his forehead onto the wall, next to Craig's head. He then rests the forearm of his other arm on the other side of Craig's head, so that he was now hovering over him in a semi-like hug of some sort. Craig is a bit perplexed by the action and is about to say something but Kenny speaks up.

"...A world in which you don't exist, isn't one I would want to live in." Kenny whispers softly, his head turned slightly so that he was now speaking directly into Craig's ear. The words cause Craig's chest to tighten immensely, to the point where he thinks that his heart may have stopped. "You're the one thing, that keeps me hanging on. If something were to happen to you then-"

Before he can finish, they hear a door echoing open in the hallway somewhere at the far end of it with a loud creak. Kenny backs away as footsteps are heard coming down the hall. Craig quickly pulls his pants back up, trying to ignore the still sharp burning sensation in his leg and slowly stands back up against the wall. He goes to grab his backpack but Kenny takes it, and puts it on instead. They stay quiet as they hear other doors in the hall being opened one by one.

Craig quietly approaches the door to the room they're in and cracks it open a bit. He sees one of the uniformed men go into a room across the hall. Then he sees another one down it, standing guard in front of the staircase. He leans away from the door and looks around the room.

A short while later, the man leaves the room from across the hall and opens the door to the room that they're in next. The man looks around but doesn't see anything as he walks into it. He also doesn't see when Craig moves from their hidden spot behind the door and hits him hard on the back of the head. The man falls to the ground a second later having been knocked out. His body hitting the floor must have been pretty loud though, because they hear the other one come running down the hall now.

When the other one reaches the room, he sees the man's body on the floor. He ends up being too distracted by it to see the fist that was rushing towards his face in the next second. The impact of it hits him square on, and he gets knocked out in one hit also, with his body landing right next to the first man's.

"Let's go," Craig says, and shakes out his hand a bit. Kenny offers his arm again before doing so, but Craig shakes his head, "It's okay, I'll manage."

Kenny looks at him, as if there was something wanting to be said, but instead he nods his head. They then leave the room and make their way back to the staircase. When Craig glances down it, he sees lights from flashlights moving all around it's lower floors, and seeming to be making their way up them. Craig looks up at some stairs that seemed to lead to the roof.

"This way," he says quickly.

They head up the steps, and Craig tries to push through the throbbing-burning pain of his injured leg being used. His only thoughts all being focused on reaching the door at the top. Kenny reaches it before him of course and tries to open it. However it doesn't budge, indicating it's locked to Craig.

"Move out of the way," Craig motions.

Kenny does, standing off to the side of it. Craig's eyes then glow brightly and he fires a blast at the door, knocking it off it's hinges. It falls down and makes a loud sound upon it's impact with the solid surface below it. Voices are then heard shouting in the staircase as the two of them hurry back out into the cold once again. Craig quickly glances around the roof's surface looking for anything that he could, but only seeing a thin layer of fresh snow covering it all. His eyes land a building next to the one they were on, and he goes over to the roof's ledge.

"We're going to need to jump," he says, "it's the only thing I can think of to get away." Kenny gives a silent nod, as Craig looks over the side of the roof. The distance between the two buildings seemed to be close enough, so there was a good chance that they could make it. Craig takes a few steps back after contemplating it and let's out a slight sigh, "Well, here goes nothing."

With everything he has, he rushes forward and pushes himself off the ledge. He feels the cold air wip around him as his body flies through it, his heart racing wildly in his chest as he glances down at the ground far below him. And just as fast as he had pushed off, he's landing onto the building's roof that was across from him. When he lands however, he kneels down in pain from his leg and holds onto it. A couple of seconds later, Kenny also makes it across and walks over to him.

"Are you-"

"I'm fine," Craig grunts out and steadily stands back up.

"Over there!" a voice shouts.

When the two look back, they see the men in uniform exiting out onto the roof they were just on.

"We need to keep going," Craig urges and forces himself into a run again.

Craig spots another building in front on them, and tells Kenny to jump again. So they do, and also make it across that one luckily as well. But Craig earns another wave of sharp pain shooting through him. However, he found it not as bad this time, as adrenaline was now starting to course hard through his veins. And the only thing on his mind being, that they needed to escape, they needed to get away and keep on going. When they come upon another building over, it was around a story lower than the one they were currently on. They stop at the roof's edge and look down at it. Kenny then glances over at Craig, waiting for his word.

"We need to jump," Craig tells him, and Kenny looks down at it. "On three, ready? One. Two. Three-"

As soon as three is said, they both jump down. Craig can feel an immediate shift in gravity as he falls down and lands onto the roof's cold surface. This time it hurts much more when he lands on it because of the bigger drop. And a part of him swears that he could feel the bullet in his leg lodge just a bit deeper in to him. He looks down at the small bullet hole in his pants and sees that the white bandage under it was now dyed red. Kenny then walks over and looks at him.

"I'm okay," Craig says and offers a weary smile up at him.

Kenny stays silent and only watches him for a couple seconds before extending a hand to him, which Craig takes and pulls himself back up onto his feet again. Kenny then holds onto him to help keep him upright, and Craig tries and wave him off. However, Kenny seemed resilient to let him do so now, and stays next to Craig making sure he can move alright. The two make their way about halfway across the new roof when something suddenly bursts out of the roof's floor in front of them. It takes Craig a moment to realize that it's a piece of concrete that had come flying through it. He wonders what the hell could have projected it with so much force and caused it to go through the roof like that.

Then, slowly, lethargically, almost as if crawling out from the depths of the underworld itself. A figure's arm emerges from the new hole in the roof.

"Did you miss me?" a deep raspy voice asks.

At the sound of that voice, Craig could almost feel all of the blood in his body run cold.

"Because..." a strong build figure fully comes onto the roof and looks up at them. A wicked grin spread across his face, "I missed you."


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: Wow, it's been a while since my last update huh? Sorry about that, life's been pretty busy for me and stuff. But I want you all to know that I _DO_ intend on finishing this story no matter what. It's just taking a bit of time. And if you've stuck with it this far, I just want to say thank you. This story means a lot to me. **

**I also just wanna add in real quick, that the way their subject names are read in this story would be like: 122 is one twenty-two and, 123 is one twenty-three. Hopefully this helps clear that up if it's on anyone's mind. (I will be sure to go back to an earlier chapter and add in this note for any future readers to see as well, just in case.)**

 **Also for those who don't know yet, this story is also cross posted to AO3, which has images I drew to go along with the story as well. So if you're curious to see what some scenes may look like, I suggest checking them out on there. (I did quite a few images for this particular chapter there.)**

* * *

Craig takes a step back from the looming figure now standing before them, remembering what happened last time he got to close to the inhuman of a tank being.

"Why are you after us? Aren't you a subject also?" Craig asks.

"I am," he grins. "But unlike _certain_ other subjects, I work with the government."

"Why?"

"Why not?" he asks back, "I get things out of doing it. And besides... I love combat missions," his eyes narrow. "Taking down annoying obstacles that get in the way, is always a fun thing to do."

Craig glares back, "Yeah, well you're still just a subject number to them."

He laughs. "That's true, I will always be known as subject 170 to them. But a few do call me by my name."

"Your name?" Craig arches a brow, recalling how he still didn't even know his name yet.

"Trent," he smirks. "That or the codename they've given me," he shrugs. "But enough of this small talk. Let's get down to business. Hand over subject 122 peacefully to me and I won't have to kill you," he cracks his knuckles as he starts to walk towards them and Craig's eyes begin to glow. "You really think that attack of yours will do anything?"

"Guess we'll find out," Craig says and aims a shot at his face.

Trent blocks the blast with an arm and Craig takes the chance to hurry past with Kenny. They reach the edge of the roof just as Trent looks at them again. Craig quickly looks along the side of the building and spots a fire escape.

"This way!" he directs Kenny and they jump down onto it.

"Oh no you don't!" Trent yells.

Just as the two of them get down almost three flights, the whole of the metal escape suddenly shakes. When they quickly look up, they see that Trent was now on it also.

"You're not going anywhere," he sneers.

And the next thing they know, the entire fire escape is detached from the wall. It's old rusty bolts and screws giving way under the sheer force that is Trent. As the whole thing starts to crumble down to the ground, Kenny swiftly grabs a hold of Craig, wrapping his arms around him as it all falls to the pavement below in loud clangs of metal hitting it and echoing.

Craig's body aches when he tries to move with the weight of some broken pieces of metal laying on top of him. But he manages to sluggishly push himself up and the pieces fall down around him. A part of him is pretty sure that it should've hurt much more than that, but something red catches his eye and he realizes why it wasn't as bad as it should've been. Kenny was lying underneath him, having shield his fall. Craig's eyes widen when he sees that an old rusty piece of metal was now sticking right through his shoulder.

"Y-Your shoulder!" Craig exclaims.

Kenny glances at it, then looks at Craig, "Are you alright?"

Craig looks at him shocked, "I'm fine! I'm more worried about you!"

Some sounds of metal being moved around are then heard from behind them. Having remembered that they weren't alone, Craig moves off of Kenny and hurries to think of what to do next.

"We need to go," he says in a much lower voice, "but how do we-" Kenny lifts himself up then, pulling his shoulder free from the metal pricing him. And a look of worry appears in Craig's features immediately, "Hey- wait- if you do that then-"

Kenny stands and places a hand over the fresh new wound, "We should go," he says stoically. He lowers his other hand down towards Craig, "Are you okay to walk?"

Before Craig can reply, more metal being moved and clanged about is heard. He looks back and sees Trent now slowly emerging from the metal scraps that were piled up on top of him. Craig looks at Kenny and quickly takes his hand getting up. The two then take off as fast as they can down the alleyway they had fallen in to.

They round a corner and Craig spots an opened door, he guides Kenny towards it. They go inside of it and he shuts it. He takes the momentary pause to catch his breath and breathe. He looks around, noting that they were in some kind of old warehouse building now, with many types of crates scattered about and other left behind things in it. He looks at Kenny, seeing the red on his shoulder spreading.

"How is it?" Craig asks.

Kenny moves his hand away and Craig examines it more closely. Kenny then slides his hand under his coat and shirt collar, moving it over so that the other can see it better. When Craig sees the wound in it's entirety, he notices that it has stopped bleeding and was in fact actually starting to close. He glances up at Kenny, his face still showing no reaction to it what so ever, then back at the wound.

The wound finishes healing before Craig's eyes and a somewhat surreal feeling fills him. He touches the area in a small circular motion lightly, smudging some blood that's been left over around it. Even though there's absolutely no trace left of the opened wound, Craig can't help a strange, sad, feeling from arising in him as he looks at it. He's pulled from his thoughts though, when he hears a loud sound off in the distance. They both look back at the door.

"Let's go." Craig says and they head off deeper into the building.

Craig looks around wondering what they should do as another loud sound is heard in the distance. He thought that maybe if they lay low, those people might think that they're gone from the area and move on. Although that was pretty doubtful. They enter into a small office room area just as a loud crashing sound is heard coming from the huge warehouse space they were just in. They hide behind an old desk and Craig peers around the side, looking into the other room to see Trent now standing in the doorway they were at just mere seconds ago.

Trent looks around, as if searching for any sign of them. When his eyes examine the floor, he finds just the hint he was looking for. Blood. He grins.

"I know you're here!" Trent's voice booms, "You can't hide from me!"

Craig hides back around the desk as he sees Trent start to move further into the building. Without fully realizing it, he was now holding his breath and doing everything that he could in order to try and make his presence there as non-existent as possible. Trent's footsteps stop, and Craig thinks that for the tiniest sliver of a second, it might have worked. That is until a huge object comes crashing through the wall to the room that they're hiding in.

Both are caught off guard when a big metal crate comes in through the wall. Dust rises everywhere and Craig can hear the footsteps walking again. Heading right for them. He tries not to cough and gestures for Kenny to follow him and hide elsewhere before the footsteps reach them. They manage to slip out another door leading in to the small office space and back out into the huge space of the wearhouse and find a wooden crate to hide behind without being spotted.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Trent taunts in a singsong tone.

He was toying with them and Craig knew it. But all he was focused on, was trying to figure out how to get out of this place. If they could just somehow make it past Trent then maybe—Craig's heel hits a small broken off piece of an old rebar lying next to his foot, causing the metal sound to echo loudly throughout the old building.

"Hmmm, now what could've caused that sound I wonder?" Trent's voice echos back.

Before Craig can even make another move, the crate they're hiding behind is suddenly sent skidding quickly across the floor sideways, and crashing into the wall. When he looks over, he sees Trent straightening up from a punching stance.

"Found you." he smirks.

Craig tenses, all the hairs on his body standing on end. Trent takes a step forward, causing Craig to instinctively grab Kenny's hand again and run. As soon as they do, Trent takes off running immediately towards them and a sudden strong impact hits Craig's side. So strong in fact, that it causes their grip on one another to tear apart as he goes flying through the air. A cry of pain can't help but come out as Craig lands hard on his injured leg.

"Now come along you," Trent says to Kenny. "No more running away," he grabs Kenny's wrist, "unless you want even more harm to come to your little boyfriend over there."

"Don't..." Craig says quietly, getting back up to his feet, glaring. "Touch him."

Craig refused to stay down. No matter what. He wasn't going to let them take Kenny back away to that awful place again. He was willing to do everything in his power to make sure that it didn't happen. As he steadies his stance more, Trent gives him an amused look and pulls Kenny towards himself. He faces him towards Craig and grabs the bottom of his face.

"What? Do you mean like this?" Trent smirks and runs his thumb over Kenny's bottom lip, causing them to part slightly.

His smirk grows wider as he sees the reaction that is pulled from Craig because of it. He then tilt's Kenny's head to the side and exposes his neck, grinning widely as he leans in closer to it. But before he can do any more, the rage built up in Craig at the sight boils over and he's rushing at him in the next second. Trent pushes Kenny to the side, having gotten a satisfied reaction out of Craig. As Craig reaches him, he swings a punch at him, but it's blocked by Trent catching his fist.

"Is that really all you have?" Trent laughs, and Craig throws his other fist, which also gets blocked.

Trent grins and it only irritates Craig more. He found it to be extremely irritating since the first time he fought this guy. All he wanted to do, was burn the goddamn thing off of his face so he would never have to see it again. His eyes shoot out a blast, and even in this close of a range, he knew it should still hurt Trent. And it does.

Trent reels back in pain, letting go of Craig's fists, which Craig takes the chance to knock him down with a swift sweep kick. Trent lands on his back and Craig goes on top of him, throwing one punch after the other at his face. He keeps it up until he starts to feel himself tire. When he stops to catch his breath, his knuckles are red and swollen with some minor splits in them.

A deep laugh erupts from Trent, "Now that's the spirit!" he looks at Craig, a wide stretched uncanny smile plastered on his face. He thrusts his hands forward throwing Craig off and causing him to land on his back."Show me what you really got," he says getting back up.

Craig could still feel anger boiling over in him and fires out a shot as he gets up. Trent dodges it as he charges for Craig, grabbing a hold of his waist and slamming him into a pair of closed doors. The impact being so strong that the doors open and Craig finds himself now outside, looking up at the cloudy night sky. A mixture of burning pain and coldness filling his lungs from the air that was spreading through him all at once now. As Craig goes to get back up, a punch goes flying towards his face. He manages to just barely avoid it and throws his own in return. It lands, but Trent barely even budges. Trent sneers and grabs Craig's wrist, pulling him forward so that his own fist makes direct contact with his chest. Craig let's out a winded cough and Trent kicks him, sending him back. Craig somehow manages to keep on his feet, despite his insides fast starting to feel like they were turning to mush from each blow. He holds fast at his aching stomach, looking up and firing another shot at Trent.

Trent raises up a hand and blocks it as he walks towards him, "You can't keep using the same tricks, they get old."

As soon as the sparks fade away from Craig's eyes, Trent rushes at him again. Craig moves out of the way, but Trent quickly turns on the spot and hooks his arm around Craig's neck, knocking him down fast and hard to the ground. When the pavement makes contact with the back of Craig's skull, everything blurs as a ringing pain spreads throughout him. Also finding it hard to breathe, having gotten winded again by the impact. Between the gasps for air and the fading in and out of dots in his vision, he can just vaguely make out Trent walking towards him. He tries to kick at him, but Trent grabs his ankle. So he tries with the other and the result is the same. He tries to pull his legs free but Trent's grip tightens and a sudden blinding pain hits Craig as Trent kicks him hard in the groin. Craig recoils in pain as Trent let's go of him. His eyes shut as everything was now spinning for him and he begins to feel nauseous from all the blows his body had taken.

In the haze of pain though, Craig can faintly feel a pair of hands wrap around his throat as Trent sits on top of him. Craig claws at his hands, fighting to gasp for air between being crushed by Trent's massive weight and his closed off airway. Everything was slowly starting to become more dark in Craig's vision and he could feel himself beginning to lose consciousness from lack of oxygen. Just as he's on the tipping point of going under, he sees something orange wrap around Trent's neck and pull him back, causing him to let go. In the next second, Craig can feel the cold fresh air instantly enter back in to his lungs again as he takes in a deep breath. He takes a few more deep breaths and when he looks over he sees that Trent is now on his back, grasping at arms that are tightly wrapped around his neck. It takes Craig a few seconds to process that it's Kenny.

Trent struggles to get Kenny off, grabbing at him from where he could. Kenny's legs wrap around him from behind and he puts him in a hold, his vice grip around Trent's neck only tightening more. Trent begins to lift himself up and slam backwards into the ground, trying to get Kenny off. When it doesn't work, he grabs at one of Kenny's wrists and a very audible snap is heard as he breaks it. Kenny's grip loosens and Trent grabs his other arm and tears him off harshly to the side. Long, red, swollen scratch marks are left along Trent's neck from Kenny's nails as he's torn away. Kenny lands on his side and it's only then does Craig notice that the backpack is gone from him now, figuring that something must have happened to it while he was preoccupied with fighting Trent.

Trent gets up, "I'd almost forgotten about you," he let's out a small laugh, "too bad you had to interfere when I was about to end it."

Kenny's face seems to almost darken at that. His eyes looking a threatening cold as he glares at Trent. It was similar to a look Craig had seen once before on him, one that meant he was ready to kill.

"What's with that scary expression all of the sudden?" Trent asks bemused, "Man if looks could kill," he looks back over at Craig and cracks his knuckles. "Better wrap this up fast then."

Craig tries to get back up quickly as the bulky figure walks towards him, but only makes it up onto one knee. As Trent nears him, he draws an arm back and points his fingers in a spear-like way.

"This shouldn't hurt too much," Trent grins.

Craig knew that he couldn't dodge or avoid what was coming in time. His body was to sore and sluggish to want to listen properly to him anymore. So when Trent's hand thrusts forward very fast, aiming right at his head, he braces himself for his inevitable end. But a sudden blur of orange appears in front of him so fast, that it takes a moment to realize what just happened. When Craig looks up a bit more, he sees that there Kenny was, with his back towards him, taking the full force of the attack that was meant for him.

"Kenny? W-Why..." Craig trails off stunned. Kenny turns his head to look back at him, blood starting to spill from his lips.

"Because, I want to protect you." he replies and Craig's eyes widen.

"Awww, how touching," Trent says sarcastically.

Kenny looks forward again and glowers at him. Trent cocks his head and returns the look with an amused smirk. His hand was now currently buried deep inside Kenny's chest, and he could feel something pulsing near it. He turns his hand a bit and squeezes it. Kenny's expression wavers for a brief moment and Trent notices it.

"Oh, what's this? It seems like you can feel some pain after all," Trent says arching a brow, "I wonder what would happen if I were to crush your heart? Or if I were to..." without warning, he quickly pulls back his arm with a wide devious grin spread across his face. "Tear it out!"

Craig's eyes widen in horror as he sees Kenny's body fall to the ground with a dull thud and Trent holding on to his heart in his bloodied hand. Craig stares at Kenny's lifeless, unmoving, body lying before him. Blood starts to pool around it and dye the snow crimson red. Craig just stares at it, unable to fully comprehend everything that just happened in the short span of only a few seconds. He couldn't believe what he was seeing to be true. He _didn't_ want to believe it. Something deep inside of him felt empty and hollow, as if everything he's ever known was just torn right away from him.

And suddenly he's suffocating in an ocean of emotions that make him feel like passing out. To many things, to many memories, all flooding his mind at once. All of the same person. All of _Kenny_. The only thing that ever mattered to him in this fucked up world. The only thing he ever _truly_ cared about in his 18 years of a shit life. And now he was lying there. Dead. He was gone from Craig, ripped out from right in front of him.

"Damn, I was supposed to bring him back alive," Trent mutters annoyed. "Tch, oh well, I'm sure they can make another one. Guess he won't be needing this anymore though."

Craig looks up at him vacantly and sees Kenny's still bleeding heart in his hand. When he sees Trent's grip tighten around it, something inside of him snaps. Ignoring all pain and weariness, he quickly fires an attack at Trent's face. It catches Trent off guard and he covers his face dropping the heart, Craig quickly ducks forward and catches it in his hands.

He gently cradles the fading warm organ in his now staining red hands. He wasn't going to let Trent destroy it, destroy a part of Kenny's being. He turns back around and quickly turns over Kenny's body, facing it upwards, then unzips his coat and lifts up his shirt. He places the organ back where it belongs, in the hole of his chest, even though a part of him felt like it was futile to do so.

"Please..." Craig whimpers out, "Please. Please. Please." tears start to fall from his eyes. "Wake up. You said you couldn't die- so wake up!" he cries and leans down, touching his forehead to Kenny's and holding his head in his hands. "Please."

"It's useless, he's dead," Trent says, a look of utter amusement on his face.

"...Shut up," Craig says lowly.

"He's dead and he ain't never coming back-"

"Shut up!" Craig screams, "This..." his hands clench into bloody fists, as a surge of hot anger flows through him. "This is all your fault."

Craig slowly sits up right, his back facing Trent. The cold air surrounding them picking up speed as heavy snow now starts to fall. All of Craig's emotions had started to fade away, all but one very prominent one.

Rage.

"He's dead..." Craig gets up to his feet, but feels no pain anymore, just rage. His eyes start to glow as a wave of intense energy, unlike anything he's ever experienced before, rushes through him. The glowing around his eyes becomes so strong, that it somehow starts spreading. A blue electric-like aura was now spreading down from his head, and along his arms and legs, until touching the ground beneath him and consuming him whole. But he doesn't question it. Because the only thing that was on his mind right now, was how much he had wanted to kill. Kill Trent. Kill him for what he did to Kenny. Kill him for the pain he's caused. That was the only thing that mattered to him right now. As he turns to face his tormentor, the sparks around his eyes begin to flicker sporadically and he let's out a scream of blind rage, " _ **Because of you!**_ "

"Oh? Now this seems interesting," Trent says readying himself with a smirk. "Let's go round three then shall we?"

And with another blinding scream, Craig runs towards him.

 **…**

Elsewhere, a little ways from the current battlefield, a small group of uniformed men are gathered beside one of the old buildings. A man wearing an all black formal uniform stands next to one wearing an all white formal one. The others around them wearing just their usual plain white uniforms. All of them, keeping their distance and observing how things unfold. The man in black then lifts a hand up to the earpiece he had.

"We have the two subjects in our sights," he pauses. "The current state?" he looks around the area. "We have them surrounded," another pause. "State of the subjects?" the man looks at Craig, then Trent, then at Kenny's body. "Subject 123 is engaged in combat with the Hunter. There are strong erratic signs showing from the subject. It might not be wise to let it continue," pause. "Understood. We'll wait for orders then if that happens. And as for subject 122..." he glances back at Kenny's limp body. "Subject 122 is dead," pause. "How? From a blow to the chest caused by confrontation with the Hunter," the man pauses one last time. "Understood." he replies and removes his hand from his earpiece.

"What are our orders now?" the man in white asks.

"We've been told to wait and see how this plays out. So tell the tracking units to wait on standby till further instructions."

The man in white then raises a walkie-talkie to his mouth.

 **…**

Trent throws a fist at Craig's head, but the aura surrounding Craig stops the hit from landing. Craig throws his own punch in turn and sends Trent flying backwards. Trent lands but quickly gets back up and charges at him. He grabs Craig's waist and rushes him into the side of the one of the old buildings. The aura softens the impact on Craig and he looks at Trent, firing a blast at him. Trent just barely avoids the attack, and it grazes the side of his face, burning it slightly.

"Looks like it's time I get serious." Trent says.

Trent grabs Craig by his jacket, lifting and slamming him down on his back to the ground, then stomps a foot hard on his stomach, smirking to himself. But the aura protects Craig and he fires off another wild attack from his eyes, hitting Trent's arm. Trent grabs at the wound as it burns the surface of his skin. He looks at it, then at the wall and punches it, grabbing onto to a now broken chunk of it and lifts it high above his head before slamming it down onto Craig.

Craig doesn't feel any pain though and lashes out a huge blast of some sort. The debris goes flying off of him and he gets back up. Trent goes to strike him again but Craig fires a blast, causing Trent to let out a scream of agony for the first time and draw back his hand. Blood and bits of muscle now littered his knuckles. Craig quickly sends a strong electric punch at Trent and sends him flying through the wall, causing dust and debris to go everywhere. Craig follows in after him. When the cloud of dust starts to settle, he sees that Trent is gone. When he looks around for him, something impacts with his side and it sends him sliding back a bit. He sees that it's a steel beam, and just as it falls to the floor another one comes swinging at his head.

Craig fires a heated blast at it, melting and cutting right through it. One piece of the beam falls to the floor while the other remains held up by Trent. Craig looks at him and Trent throws the rest of the beam at him. Craig knocks it away with one swift movement of his arm and walks towards Trent, his eyes getting ready to fire off another attack. Trent goes to punch him again but Craig stops it, by grabbing his fist and quickly kicking him back instead. Trent goes crashing into the wall behind him, and slumps in the hole created around him from impact. As Craig approaches him, he grins.

"Heh. Looks like you didn't disappoint me after all," he looks up at him. "And all that it took was killing your lover."

A cry of rage erupts from Craig, and he fires a blinding combined attack from his eyes and the aura encasing his body. The direct core of his attack completely incinerates Trent's whole upper half and the intense shock wave of it's remnants cuts through any support holding up the old building, causing it to shake and begin to cave in on it's self.

 **…**

Back outside, the small group of gathered uniform men watch as the old building crumbles down to the ground in a cloud of dust and debris. They wait a few minutes for everything to clear, and when it does and there's no sign of movement, the man in white turns to look at the man in black.

"What now?" he asks.

Before the man in black says anything though, blue rays of light start seeping through the building's wreckage, and start to move. He watches as Craig gradually emerges from the rubble and stands up straight, his aura still surrounding him in full. The man in black lifts a hand to his earpiece then.

"The confrontation between subject 123 and the Hunter seems over. Subject 123 is still alive and seems to have beaten the Hunter, as they are nowhere in sight," he reports and waits for further instruction. As he does so, he watches as Craig makes his way back over to Kenny's body. "I see... understood," he moves his hand away. "We've been ordered to take in subject 123."

"Are we going to engage in battle with the subject then?"

"No. We're to bring the subject down with the Blocker."

"But it's still in the testing stages."

"We've got our orders."

"Understood..." the man in white says and nods to one of the others around them. "Bring the Blocker here."

A man holding a small case comes forward and sets it down. He opens it and takes out a small peculiar looking gun, which is then handed to the man in white. The man in white then waits until Craig has stopped moving and aims the small gun at his neck, waiting for him to turn for a clearer shot.

 **…**

Craig stands looking down at Kenny's body, sparks still wild around him and emotions like that of a hurricane. His anger was still there and had not subsided one bit. He had wanted to hurt the ones responsible for all of this happening in the first place. He wanted to make them pay. But first he wanted to move Kenny's body somewhere else, he didn't want to leave it out in the open like this. However, before he can even make a move to do so, a sharp pain hits the back of his neck. He reaches a hand to the spot and feels something there. He pulls it out and looks at it, seeing that it's a small dart-like bullet of some sort. The aura around him starts to fade then and his eyes begin returning to normal. Suddenly his whole body feels very tired and he falls to the ground. When he looks around, he can see the men in uniform start to appear from behind the old abandon buildings. Realizing that they were surrounded all along.

He looks back up at Kenny and weakly moves a hand towards Kenny's cold limp one. He barely touches the tips of his fingers before his vision starts to fade away. The last thing he thinks he sees, is a familiar looking glow starting to form around Kenny's body.

"Ken...ny..."

Then there was nothing but darkness.


	25. Chapter 25

When Craig finally comes to, it's to the pain of dull throbbing in his head. He finds his gaze cast downwards at a white flooring and tries to move, but can't. His legs and arms seeming to be immobile for some reason. When he looks as to why, he can see that they are being held in place by metal clamps, also taking notice that his jacket was missing from him as well.

"So you're finally awake subject 123," a woman's voice says.

Craig looks around, but the room's features are hard to make out as a harsh light was obscuring most of it from his vision.

"Where am I?" he asks weary.

"You're back where you belong. In a confined place," the woman says. Craig squints trying to see who it is, but can hardly make anything out, "I must say, you gave us quite the chase looking for you. But we were able to get a good lead on your direction from some helpful surveillance footage."

"Who are you?"

"Ah, that's right. We've never truly met before have we? I guess you could say..." the woman walks closer with her arms crossed, now making herself much more visible to him in the light. He could now tell that she wore thin rectangle glass, that hid green eyes behind them, a white lab coat and had short brown hair. "I'm the one who created you."

"...What?" Craig says somewhat confused.

"Well, one of the scientists who helped create you anyways. I did play a rather large role in creating that serum, which in turn gave you your powers. So in that sense I created you in a way."

It takes a few seconds for Craig to fully process what she means in his still tired state, but as he starts to piece it all together, a glare crosses his eyes. "Are you the one who's behind all this shit?"

"You mean behind all the countless hours of research to better improve humanity?" she asks back. "Like I said, I'm one of the great minds who helped developed all this. But to answer your question simply. Yes."

"Better improve humanity? How the hell is experimenting on other people in such tortuous ways, for the betterment of humanity?!" Craig asks in disbelief, feeling anger build up inside of him at that.

"I guess to you, you would see it like that. But I was tasked to create something."

"Which was what exactly?"

"You." she replies, causing another somewhat confused look to appear on Craig's face. "Well to go into more detail," she continues, "It's what's inside of you that I was tasked with creating, your power."

"Why?"

"Because we need people who have abilities or powers such as yours on our side."

"Your side?" Craig scoffs.

"Yes. You see, with the injection of the serum in to your body along with some others, it caused a reaction of sorts that fused with your very being, your DNA. And it's your DNA that we need in order to replicate that same ability or power in others who work for us."

"Our abilities and powers?" Craig glares as a thought in the back of his mind slowly starts to set in more. "What the hell do you need people with powers for?"

"Defense." she states. "We need people with powers and abilities as biotype defense for the future, if our country were to fall in to a world war break out. Which some of our inside sources tell us there is a high probability for that outcome. We have news that some other countries have already started with high end weaponry technology in the past some years and are still ongoing today. Which is a very concerning thing for our country. So me and some other officials were ordered to make some high end technology of our own. That of course ended up turning in to the serum. Which had very high enhancing molecular chemicals in it, like a super serum of sorts. However, what we needed was to test it on living things to make sure it worked the way we wanted it to. So we tried with animals at first, but signs were either unresponsive or they would die within a short amount of time because they were incompatible with it. And with the bigger heads of the government breathing down our necks twenty four-seven, we had to make the hard choice to start human testing. Which proved to be much more compatible with the serum rather than the animals. But of course, we still lost many subjects to the testing."

Craig stares at her shocked and in utter disbelief by all this, "A biotype defense?" he repeats and his expression slowly starts to harden, "Don't you mean bioweapons instead? Because that's sure as hell what it sounds like a lot more to me!"

She frowns a bit, "If that is how you chose to see it as, then that is your choice."

"I do." Craig states. "So what did you do? Just go around kidnapping random people and use them in your awful experiments?!"

"Well, yes and no," she says. "See, if we just went around taking whoever we please, then there would be an up roar all over the country from people. And we couldn't have that, now could we? So we only used those that wouldn't be missed. Like the homeless, or orphans. For some homeless we offered money to them. If they chose to come with us, they would be set for life. That of course was if they survived. Others we had to use a bit more... force to convince."

"And what about with the orphans?" Craig asks lowly, even though he had a sinking suspicion arising in the back of his head, he still wanted to know for sure.

"Well with them, we would go to their orphanage and talk to those in charge." she starts. "We would then offer them money in exchange for the orphaned, explaining how we would take care of them and take them off of their hands. And in most cases it worked, and they signed their rights over to us. The power of money is truly amusing," she smiles to herself and Craig's fists clench. She then looks at him, "Now that I think about it, you were from an orphanage weren't you subject 123? Yes, you were from one of the biggest orphanage hauls we had. Around 30 to 40 new subjects came from your orphanage. And what's more, we had gone to talk to the father in charge of your orphanage about five months prior to make an offer," she chuckles. "He took the deal so fast, it was amusing. And what was so great about it, was how far away from society it was and the fact that you all were already contained for us in that gated building. After the deal was made, from that day forth you all belonged to the government. So when we were starting to get low on test subjects, we just went and gathered you all for our new batch. Of course we needed to erase any evidence of there ever being an orphanage or orphans there after. You all basically never even existed as far as society knows."

The anger that was building inside of Craig couldn't stop. He had always known that father Joseph was a bit scummy, but he never would've thought he would sink to doing something so low and that would affect so many lives. And he couldn't help but wonder if all father Joseph saw them as, were living profits that he could make a lot of money off of after that deal. A part of him couldn't help but wonder how different his life might have been, if that bastard never took the deal. For one, there sure as hell would've been a whole lot less suffering.

"A lot of interesting results started to occur after we began our tests on the subjects from your orphanage," she continues. "We found mainly the younger subjects were showing positive signs to the serum. It seemed that those who were going through the developmental stages, had the most positive reaction to it. So while they grew, the serum in them did too, combining with their DNA. However, even though this was an interesting find to us, it wasn't what we needed. What we needed was a way to put those powers that formed, in to our soldiers and other means. And creating a biodefense that would take 18 to 20 years to grow, was out of the question. So we set on trying to isolate the responsive genes in the subjects and put them in to our soldiers somehow, but before we could start on the process... we had a little bit of a problem," she looks at Craig, her eyes narrowing on him. "I'm sure you're well aware of it. Seeing as to how, you and subject 122 were the main cause of it all."

When he figures out what shes talking about, he can't help but smirk to himself. The night that he and Kenny had set that other place in to chaos, and let out so many others like them was quite something.

"I'm surprised you're telling me all of this, when before all you people would do was ignore me, no matter how much I asked questions. And I can't help but wonder... why are you telling me this now?"

"Because I want you to understand, just how important it is what we're doing here," she says and then sighs. "I won't even go in to how much research was lost because of that incident from back then, or how much we were set back. I was just glad that we managed to save some research and get some of the subjects back. One of which, was subject 122. As interesting as the other subject abilities or powers were, subject 122 had the most useful one. The power to heal all types of wounds, and the ability of not being able to die. Of course the only set back is that you would still feel the pain of dying. But, that's something we're working on."

Craig's face hardens again hearing how she talked about Kenny, "Where is he?"

The woman looks at him, "Who?"

"Kenny."

The woman falls silent as if confused on what he means, then it clicks, "Oh, you mean subject 122?" she asks then turns and picks up a small scalpel from a side table. " You know for some reason, whenever you two subjects were with one another," she brings the small blade to his arm. "It seemed like disastrous things would happen as a result," she pushes the blade into his arm a bit and he cries out in pain. "I would've stuck this in your leg to take that bullet out myself but, it was already removed before you got here around a day or two ago. Pity," she removes the scalpel. "You know I ordered them to take you in alive, I wanted to deal with you personally."

"Why? So you could torture me yourself?" Craig spits out.

"Not exactly," she pauses. "You seem to have developed quite a destructive power over time. I think if we could harness it, it would be quite useful to us," she says and Craig glares at her. "Oh and if you're trying to use that power of yours now, don't bother. We injected you with a blocker so you can't use it."

Craig's eyes can't help but widen in surprise at that information.

The woman points the scalpel at his face, "Maybe I should remove one of your eyes for testing," she brings the sharp blade closer to one of his eyes. A sudden sound goes off and she looks down at her pocket. She sighs and moves the scalpel away, answering a small cell device. "What now?" she pauses, "Again?" she sighs again, "Fine I'm on my way," she hangs it up and looks at Craig. "Looks like this little conversation will have to wait till later," she places the scalpel back down on the table and turns away. "I must go and deal with another troublesome subject for now," as she heads for the door, she mutters out, "all the troublesome ones seem to have come from that place."

With that she exits the room, followed by a few others that were in there as well. She orders a guard to keep watch outside, before the door slams shut. Craig now found himself alone in it. His thoughts were still whirling with everything he had been told. After all this time, all these years, he had heard the truth. He wasn't sure how to take most of it, but one thing he did know and that had not changed was that, despite these delusional people thinking that they're doing some sort of good service here for their country. In his eyes, they were the real bad guys. It didn't matter how much they wanted to believe they were being helpful, they only seemed like greedy pigs with no remorse or empathy for causing so much pain, to so many people.

Craig tries moving his arms again, but only winces from the fresh cut on his skin. It was bleeding now and starting to drip from his arm. But he needed to get out, he needed to find Kenny. He wasn't going to just sit here and become another one of their experiments again. And blocker or no blocker, he was still going to try and get the hell out of here. He looks at one of the restraints on his arm and tries to focus his gaze at it. Trying to summon that usual warm light feeling to build behind them.

 _I need to get out of here_ , he thinks to himself. An image of Kenny quickly flashes through his mind, the words of _'I want to protect you'_ , echo loudly in his head. He focuses harder trying to reach for that feeling, a faint glimmer pulls at his subconscious and he grabs at it. _I will get out of here,_ he continues to concentrate as he pulls the feeling more and more until— a faint flicker of something glows at the corner of his eyes. It spreads across his whole eyes and everything is drenched in a light. He pushes the light forward and a thin line of sparks shoot out and cut through the metal. He pulls his hand free and begins work on the other clamps.

Once he's free, he spots his jacket resting on a side table. He picks it up and puts it on, then heads over to the door. He sees that there's no handle on the inside of it and figures that it can only be opened from the outside. He wasn't exactly to keen on waiting for that woman to return with a bunch of guards though, he couldn't handle that many. However, he could handle one. He hits on the door hard a few times and stops when he hears a beep. He moves over to the side and a second later a guard holding a gun looks in. Noticing that Craig isn't there the guard is about to report it, but Craig quickly comes around the side and kicks him. The man hunches forward from the sudden impact and Craig just as quickly brings his knee up to the man's face. The man falls over to the floor and Craig picks up the gun, using the back of it to wack the guard unconscious.

Craig hunches down grabs the ID keycard from the man. When he stands back he winces a bit, telling himself that he probably shouldn't have used his injured leg for all that. He drops the gun and steps out of the room. Looking down the long hallway in both directions, he sees that the room he's in is pretty much the only one in that entire area, figuring that he was put in to a solitude sector. He leaves the room and shuts the door behind him, locking it.

Next he goes back to looking down the hallway, trying to figure out which way he should go. Unlike the last time he was here, he doesn't have someone to guide him through everything. In the end, he decides to just go with his gut and head down one way and hope for the best. Praying that he'll somehow find the other, and partially wonders if they could've placed Kenny back in the same room as before. If they did, then he might have a better chance of finding him.

 **…**

Elsewhere in the facility, the female scientist arrives in a room.

"What's the current report?" she sighs.

"The subject is raging again. We've tried the blocker, still no effect on it," one of the others in the room replies.

"Did you try the airborne?" she asks.

"It's not yet complete so-"

"So? It's better than losing more able bodies to it. Use it now," she orders.

"Understood."

The person walks over to a set of controls and type a command in, then push a button. The room on the other side of the observational window fills and the raging subject thrashes about even more. Running into the window, trying to break it. It presses right up to the window, and stares in on it's onlookers. Almost as if glaring at them. It had wanted to tear them all to shreds, that much was clear as it growled. It's eyes then land on the female scientist that just got there and a loud snarl escapes it. In the next second, it slides to the floor and begins to lose consciousness. The woman just stares at the pitiful thing.

"Volorha!" a voice urgently calls.

The woman looks over at the one calling her name.

"It would seem that subject, 123, that was in holding has escaped. We just got word."

"What?! How?!" she demands.

"It seems like the subject was um, able to trick the guard and take them out. When the guard came too, they said their keycard was missing and that they are now locked in the room."

Volorha let's out a frustrated sigh, "And the whereabouts of the subject now?"

"We're not sure."

Volorha looks away annoyed, her gaze falling onto the unconscious subject before her. She pauses, as if remembering something, then turns her attention back on the others in the room.

"Move this subject to holding area 42," she orders. "I think I have an idea as to where subject 123 might be headed."


	26. Chapter 26

Craig continues down the intertwining halls, his eyes looking in every which way for anything that could help him. He spots a camera in one of the halls and hides from it. He had wanted to find the room that Kenny was in last time, thinking that it was most likely where they would return him to. But he had forgotten just how much of a maze this place was since the last time, and the cameras weren't making things any easier for him. When the camera looks down another way, Craig quickly runs to it and stops underneath it. When it looks back to where it was before, Craig takes off running down the opposite direction from it.

He comes to a stop, spotting guards coming down the hall ahead of him, and notices an opened door to the side and decides to quickly slip into it before they notice him. He waits a few seconds by it, to make sure they really didn't see him and there weren't any rushing footsteps headed his way. Luckily there aren't any, and he let's out a small breath as he looks around the room, not really seeing much of it though because of how dark it was. As he waits by the door for the guards to go pass, he hears something faint. Looking around the dark room again, this time a bit more carefully. Something catches his eye, and it's then does he spot something attached to the far wall. He hears the sound again. It had sounded like breathing mixed with something wet almost. As his eyes adjust more to the dark, he could now see the outlines of a figure. However something about it seemed off, like it was missing parts of itself.

"Kenny...?" Craig calls out cautiously, thinking that it might be him, although knowing that it probably wasn't.

As he walks closer to it, a heavy breath is heard, then something else sounding like a gargled mumble follows it.

"..ai..g"

The voice that replies is so hoarse, and Craig can tell right away that it's not Kenny's, but something about it seems so familiar to him. Against his better judgment, he continues walking closer to the figure, the details of it becoming more clear as his eyes fully adjust to the dark. The first big thing he sees is blood. A lot of it. Then he sees limbs that look like they were torn off and a midsection completely sliced open and exposed. He can see the organs in it move and pulse. But most of all, he sees brown hair missing in patches on a scalp, and an eye socket missing a very familiar hazel eye from it.

Craig reels back in horror as he realizes who it is, "C-Clyde?"

There is no vocal reply, just a small slow nod.

"W-What happened?!"

He takes a moment, struggling to breathe as more of those wet gargles are heard.

"We got caught... they killed Token... left me alive... tore off my limbs.. I couldn't get away... took legs first... brought me here... took arms. Then they... found subject number and power..." he pauses and takes in another heavy breath. "They cut open... torture information...from me..."

The guilt Craig feels in his gut is instant. He knew what information they were trying to get out of him, and it was information that he didn't know either. Craig hoped that by some means, they had gotten out of there, but he always knew somewhere deep down that things didn't turn out that way. And he wondered if things would've been different, had he stayed with them to help.

"...How are you still alive?" Craig asks, wondering how he could even talk in the state he was in.

"Injected with... Amplifier... forcing power to work... keeps alive..."

Craig briefly wonders what an Amplifier does for a moment but, figures if it's as literal as the Blocker, then he had a pretty good idea what it's purpose is.

"...Stan or Dot?" he gets out.

Craig shakes his head, "I don't know what happened to them after all the chaos. Me and Kenny got away but, they tracked us down and caught up to us."

"I see... hopefully they got away..."

"Yeah..." Craig says quietly. He had hoped the same but somewhere deep down, he had a feeling that might not be the case.

"Are you... looking for him?" Clyde asks and Craig nods, knowing who he means. Clyde closes his eye and smiles faintly. "He's lucky to have you... watching over him."

Those words cause guilt to build up more in Craig's chest. He thinks of how lonely Clyde must have felt being here, being tortured, and no one coming to find him. He felt the weight of his guilt even more, knowing that he was the one who dragged him in to this. All of them.

"Kenny... he healed me before, when I got broken ribs," Craig says and looks up at him. "Maybe he could—"

"No," Clyde says. "Just go..."

Craig gives a confused look, "But—"

"The effects... the Amplifier... are fading... can feel it. Wouldn't have time... to find him... get back to me... on last dosage... anyways," Clyde tells him. "Find Kenny... and keep going... alright?" he smiles weakly. " "Go... before they find you."

"But..."

"Go..." Clyde says softly. "Don't let, everyone's efforts go to... waste."

There's a few seconds of pause, as Craig thinks over everything. He then looks away and begins to walk back over to the door slowly. When he reaches it, he pauses. He keeps his eyes trained forward and doesn't look back.

"I'm sorry," he says quietly, before he leaves the room, slipping back into the labyrinth of hallways once again.

Clyde smiles to himself and closes his eye, "It was... a good run."

Those words soon become lost forever in time, as the blood in his body starts to slow down, eventually coming to a stop. The very last of his existence fading away as all of it begins to spill out of his body and down onto the floor beneath him.

 **…**

As Craig continues down the hallways, he tries his best not to think of what happened or what he saw just a short while ago, and instead pushes it to the back of his mind and focuses on the task at hand. He reaches the end of a long hall and looks around it, something clicks in his mind, like that of distant familiarity. He goes down another turn connected to it, following the feeling that he had. Letting his feet guide him. When he rounds a corner leading down a short hall, he spots a big circular door. He can't help but smile a bit, having finally found it.

He doesn't see any guards standing in front of it this time though, and isn't sure if that should be a good or bad thing. But regardless, he walks up to the door. The only way he was going to get an answer, was if he checked out the room himself after all. He spots the keycard slot and takes out the ID he took, he looks at it hoping this will work. He slides it through the slot, and there's a silence as he waits. As he starts thinking that the ID he has might not have access to the room, the small light above the slot turns green.

The gears of the door turn and it begins to open. Once opened all the way, Craig cautiously steps into the big room. The room was dark, like the last time he saw it, except for a single light in the middle of it. It shone down directly on a large metal object, that Craig recognized to be the back of the metal table that Kenny had been on the last time he was there as he walks towards it. With every step that he took, his apprehension grew. It had been too quiet, and he feared that he might be walking right in to a trap. When he reaches the metal table and steps around to the other side of it, a wave of overwhelming relief washes over him though.

Kenny was there.

He walks over and stands in front of him, noticing that his eyes were closed and his shirt and coat were now gone. He watches the rise and fall of his chest steadily, no longer bearing a hole, as if it never even existed in the first place. Kenny was alive. The recollection of Craig seeing a light form around him before passing out crosses his mind, now knowing that what he had seen wasn't just a hallucination after all anymore. Even though at the time, he thought that he lost him. He lifts up a hand and grazes over where the hole had been with the tips of his fingers. At that, Kenny's eyes slowly open.

"Craig...?"

"Hey," Craig smiles a bit upon hearing him speak.

"This place, it's..."

"Yeah, they caught us and brought us back here," he tells him and moves his hand away. "They decided to take me in alive, because one of the scientists wanted to deal with me personally. But I managed to get out from where they were holding me."

"I see..."

"Anyways, I'm going to get you down from there."

Craig looks around and spots a nearby control pad, seeing a slot in it. He looks back down at the ID keycard in his hand and wonders if it would work here as well. It had open the door after all, but still, something felt off to him in his gut.

"You should go," Kenny says looking away.

"Huh?" Craig looks at him confused.

"You should just go, and leave me behind."

"What? No— "

"Bringing me with you, will only cause you more problems. Even if we get away again, they'll continue to hunt us down. Just like before. Until we're caught again."

Craig looks at him stunned, "Where is this—"

"You'll have to be in constant fear and worry if you take me with you. Or be in danger all the time. Without me there, you'll have a better chance at living a more peaceful life. A more normal one, like before, when you stayed with those people you told me about. All I'll do is cause you problems and be a bother. That's all I ever seemed to have—"

" _Enough!_ " Craig snaps, and Kenny looks at him. "I don't know where this is coming from all of the sudden, but I don't want to hear you saying all of these things!"

Craig was confused as to why Kenny was saying all of these things to him, if not also a little hurt by them as well. He didn't know what had brought them all on so suddenly, or where it was all stemming from. Maybe it was something built up over time in the recent days, or something that had always been there, he didn't know. But whatever the case was, he didn't want to hear these things from him. No, not him.

"And you're wrong..." Craig continues quietly. "You've never been a bother, or problem, or anything like that to me. Ever. All of those years that passed by without you... felt hallow to me on the inside. Because I knew that you were still out there somewhere, somewhere I couldn't reach, because I didn't know where it was. And I couldn't be with you because of that. So everyday that went by without you, left me restless. Because everyday I knew that you were still out there, in some god awful place, suffering. And I don't know how to explain it properly but, it felt as if I was suffering along with you because of it. Because I couldn't get to you, because I couldn't stop the pain you were feeling or experiencing, because I couldn't have you next to me and away from it all." Without realizing it, his eyes had begun to water.

Kenny's gaze shifts downwards along with his head, "But I... why?" he asks faintly.

"Because..." Craig starts. "You're my home, my heart, my other half... you're my everything," he lifts his head back up with his hands so that he can look directly at him. "I love you."

The expression on Kenny's face changes from his usual blank unreadable one, to that of surprise. Craig smiles a bit and let's go of his head, turning back around to the control pad.

"Now, I'm going to get you out of here okay?" he says and slides the ID through it, hoping that it works.

There's a silence, and Craig doesn't think that it's going to work. He had remembered that last time, Kenny had said something about the keycard needing to be from higher ups, and started thinking that a guard might not have access to him directly. Just as he's thinking about whether he should try using his power again or not, the small light turns green and the clamps around Kenny release him. He lands on his knees and Craig walks over to him, still trying to shake the nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right here. As he gets closer, Kenny gets up and takes a few steps towards him.

Craig figures that means he's ready to get moving right away, "Alright, let's get out of—"

Kenny instead wraps his arms around the other tightly, "I love you too," he replies.

The words cause Craig's heart to skip and Kenny pulls back a bit placing a hand on his cheek, looking at him. He then leans his forehead against Craig's and moves his hand down along Craig's neck and to his chest resting it there. Craig's heart was beating so hard in his chest by this point, he wondered if Kenny could feel it. Very slowly, their heads started to tilt up more bringing their faces closer. Craig could feel Kenny's breath ghosting over his lips, and the beating of his heart loud in his eardrums now. Their faces were so close to one another, that—a very loud mechanical sound is heard then, and the two are instantly drawn back looking towards it. They see that the door to the room had now begun to close. When it stops, it locks in place with a loud clunk, and the light that is shining on the table where Kenny was, turns off and the whole room is shrouded into darkness.

"I feel like I'm starting to watch a never ending soap opera with how you two are acting," a loud voice echos throughout the room.

In the next second a bright light comes on, illuminating a holographic screen, Craig recognizing the woman with glasses on it instantly.

"You," Craig glares.

"Volorha..." Kenny murmurs.

"Volorha?" Craig says confused for a second before realizing that was probably the woman's name.

The woman gives a bemused smirk, "I must say that this is a rather interesting development. I had a feeling that you would try and find where subject 122 was, based on your inquiries and the last time you were here. I thought that you may just be sentimental about your old subjectmate or something. However after seeing the way you two subjects interacted and the things you said to one another just now... well, that certainly was an unforeseen outcome. But it does make a lot more sense for your actions I suppose. Most other subjects that were put in a room together, either died from tests, or went mad and killed the other subject. You two subjects were the only ones who did neither of those things. The guards would sometimes say you two acted differently towards one another when they would go get one of you. I guess I know why that is now."

An irritated look crosses Craig's features, "You know something? You talk too goddamn fucking much."

He didn't want to think of how this person or anyone else, basically just watched him and Kenny share such a very intimate moment with one another.

Volorha laughs a bit, "I guess that's true. So let's just get on with the show then shall we?" a green light to the far side of the room flicks on, "Remember how I said some subjects went mad? Well others went both mad and mutated physically," the sound of a door slowly opening is heard. "Like the one you're about to meet. This subject mulled it's other subjectmate to death. Pity, that one had a similar power to yours, but flew as well. I'm sure it could've been useful to hone that power. And so yours would've been too, if you weren't about to face a similar fate like now. As much as I would've like to have dealt with you myself, subject 123, this will have to do instead. And although subject 122 most likely will be killed off again, it's small collateral damage if it means stopping a repeat like before."

The sound of the door stops, indicating that it's been opened all the way now.

Craig looks up at the screen and extends his arm offering up his middle digit to her, "Fuck you."

Volorha frowns, "Goodbye subject 123."

And with that, the screen goes out and everything becomes black again.


	27. Chapter 27

Craig feels around until he finds Kenny's hand in the darkness.

"Don't let go of my hand, I don't want to lose track of you," Craig says.

"I won't," Kenny replies.

They both fall silent and listen, their ears straining to hear whatever sound they could in the dark. But nothing is heard for a long while, except for the beating Craig could hear in his ears at the growing unease he felt from not being able to see or know what was at the other side of the room in it's shadows. Then something is heard. It's faint at first, and Craig almost misses the sound. A very light tap echoes throughout the room, one almost sounding like nails hitting the floor, followed by another and another. It doesn't take either one long to realize that the light taps were starting to get louder as they drew closer to them. Craig's hand tightens around Kenny's, his nerves growing from the situation at the unseen figure that was approaching them. The taps stop abruptly then, but neither one of them makes a move. Something was there, in front of them. Even if they couldn't see it, they could sense it's presence, as if it were waiting for something.

Suddenly there's a grunt and the taps are back, this time much faster, as if they are rushing right towards them. Something brushes against Craig's free hand just as Kenny pulls him towards himself. A loud thud is heard as something makes impact with the metal table behind them. Kenny then quickly guides Craig away, his grip tight around his hand. He feels around with his free one until he finds a large object, which he pulls Craig to hide behind.

"Stay low," Kenny whispers.

"What the hell was that?!" Craig whispers back.

"I'm not to sure... but I have a faint idea."

Some more taps are heard once again, also accompanying a few snorts and grunts. As the sounds get closer to them Kenny guides Craig around their hiding spot. They hear the sound of faint sniffing as it comes up to the side of what they're behind just as they round it. Kenny keeps guiding Craig around the object until it sounds like they are behind the thing. He then guides him to another object, which they hide behind again.

"It's tracking our scent I think," Craig whispers quietly, in where he guesses Kenny's ear is.

"I know, but that's only because we're out of it's sight," Kenny whispers back, and Craig can faintly feel his warm breath.

"What do you mean?"

"When the door it came out of opened, it went right for us, because it saw us. But as soon as we hid from it, it lost track of us," Kenny explains. "If it's the one I've heard them mention about before... this may not end well."

So far what Kenny had told Craig seemed to be true. Because if it could see them right now, chances are they'd hear it running right at them like before. Craig feels himself being guided to another object, as the taps grow louder again.

"How do you know where to go? It's pitch black." he whispers.

"I've spent years in this room," Kenny replies as they come to a stop.

Craig doesn't need to ask anymore at that, he knew what he meant by it. Sniffs and grunts, draw closer to them again, and Craig feels some minor frustration in this situation. If he knew where the damn thing was exactly, then he might be able to hit it. He was pretty sure, that he could use a bit more of his power now too. Because it felt much easier to grasp at than before. As they round the place they're hiding at, Craig's shoulder knocks something over, causing whatever it is, to clang loudly on the floor. Soon a bunch of fast taps are headed right for them.

Kenny doesn't hesitate as he quickly pulls Craig to another spot. But the thing let's out a sharp screech and the taps become much harder and faster. The two run through the darkness then, knowing that it had probably seen them, but something grabs onto Craig's leg and pulls him down hard to the floor, causing him to lose his grip on Kenny. He feels a sharp pain in his leg, as whatever it is, digs into it. Craig let's out a scream of pain as a heavy weight starts to crush it.

But just as fast as the pain and weight are there, they're gone. He hears something land on the floor and then what sounds like a scuffle of some sort. He isn't sure what is going, but the fact that the thing let go of him so suddenly like that, only makes him think that it was because Kenny did something.

"Kenny?!" Craig calls out.

He hears a snarl and looks to where the sounds are coming from. He didn't know where exactly Kenny was but he knew he needed help. So he takes a risk, and fires a blind shot from his eyes into the dark. And for a split second, he sees the thing. Fur, claws, sharp teeth, but more than that, it's glinting orbs of eyes reflecting his attack off of them. His shot hits the thing though, grazing right past it's side and it let's out a screech of pain.

"Kenny?" Craig says urgently.

He feels something on his shoulder.

"I'm here," Kenny replies.

Craig frantically grabs his hand and the two run for cover behind something as the thing let's out another high pitched screech. Craig rests his free hand on the object they're behind, it felt flat and cold to touch for him, and he thinks that they somehow made it back to the metal table.

"Well, I think I've pissed it off," Craig says, hearing the thing thrash about. "We need a plan or something. If I knew where it was exactly, I would be able to hit it properly."

After the last attack, he was correct in that he was able to use his power more now. Whatever effects that serum had on him before, seemed to be gradually fading away now. Craig's hand brushes against his jacket pocket and he feels something in it. He sticks his hand in it, and glides his fingers along a thin square object.

"I think I found a diversion," he whispers.

He takes the square object, a candy bar, out of his pocket and peels back the wrapper of it. He then tosses it onto the floor behind the table. Listening for where it lands. As soon as it hits the floor, the thing goes quiet and the taps return in full force going right for the item. It snarls and Craig hears the sound of aluminum crinkling harshly. Once he locks on to it's position mentally, his eyes glow and he fires a shot. This time, it hits the thing dead on and he sees it sent flying backwards from the light of his attack. He hears it crash into glass, which he figures is one of the large test tubes, and it let's out a very high shriek. The thing thrashes about, in what sounds like a mixture of glass and liquid, for a good minute or two before falling silent.

After a long while Craig wonders if the thing is dead from not hearing anything anymore. Something catches the corner of his eye a moment later, a light, and he sees that it's Kenny. That familiar glowing light was emitting from his stomach area, hidden underneath his arm.

"You're stomach," Craig says and moves his arm away.

Kenny's stomach now had a big, deep, gash across it, from what Craig guesses was caused by that thing. Some of his inner organs are showing and are partially sticking from the wound. The sight of it, makes Craig cringe inwardly.

"It's fine," Kenny says moving Craig's hand away. "It will heal."

"But—"

"I'm just glad that it wasn't you that got this injury."

Craig falls silent and looks at the glowing light. He knew that it would heal, but no matter how many times he saw it, this was something he felt like he would never truly get used to seeing. Kenny covers it back up, sensing his dismay.

"Is there any other way out of this room?" Craig asks looking away.

"No, just the big door I think."

"What about where that thing came from?"

"It was being held in a storage room I think."

"Is there a vent in there?"

"I'm not sure, I've never been inside it."

"Let's go check it out," Craig suggests and gets up.

They head towards the room, using the glow from Kenny's wound to guide them through the dark. Their footsteps echoing lightly in the now eerily silent room, something about the lack of sound in it now was staring to play at Craig's nerves a bit, he didn't like it and only wanted to get out of there as quick as possible. They reach the room, it's door still opened despite the light above it now being off. When entering the smaller room, they can faintly make out shelves, boxes and what appears to be a big container of some sort pushed to the back of it. As they look around a bit more, Craig sees a panel on the lower wall.

"Hey, over here," he motions for Kenny to come closer.

The glow grows much brighter now, enough that Craig can see it's a vent. He leans down and tries to pry it off, but it won't budge.

"I need something to remove the screws with," Craig mumbles.

"Will this do?" Kenny asks, holding up a small screwdriver.

"Where—"

"It was on one of the shelves."

"Oh... right, storage room."

Craig takes it from him and gets to work unscrewing the vent. When he finishes, he moves the grate, putting it to the side.

"You go first," Kenny tells him.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'll be right behind you. Don't worry."

"Alright," he pauses looking over Kenny. "But uh first, put this on," he says taking his jacket off, and handing it to him."It's cold and I don't know where your coat is, so take mine."

Kenny looks at it, "But I don't feel—"

"Just put it on," Craig insists, shoving his jacket to him.

Kenny takes it and slides it on, leaving it unzipped though for the light. Craig offers a small smile to him as he he gets ready to enter the vent but is stopped by Kenny.

"What happened to your arm?" he asks touching the now revealed wound.

"It's nothing," Craig tells him, and moves his arm away. "Just a little welcoming gift, don't worry about it," he crouches down to the vent. "Let's just get out of here."

He heads into it, not wanting to spend another second in the still very unsettling quiet area. When he gets a few feet in the narrow passage, Kenny comes in behind him. He looks back to see Kenny place the grate back in front of the opening.

"Why are you putting that back on?" Craig asks.

"Just a precaution," Kenny says, managing to somehow turn around and face him.

Craig doesn't ask him to expand on it, he knows what he means. It was the same lingering feeling that both seemed to be sharing in silence ever since that thing stopped moving. Looking forward, the two make their way down the vent without saying another word, the faint glow from Kenny guiding them.

And even after they've long gone down it, the room can't help but offer up one last little tap.


	28. Chapter 28

Sometime later, Craig and Kenny eventually comes across another grate. Craig let's out a small sigh to himself, both from being relieved that he could give his hands and knees a rest because they were starting to get a bit sore, and also because there was a way out, which he was starting to worry that there might not have been one after crawling for so long. The light that had been fading over time from Kenny's wound behind Craig, dies out then, signaling it's complete heal to him. Craig looks through the grate then and sees some dim lights in the room it's connected to. He tries to moving it with his hands, but it won't budge. He then maneuvers himself in a way that allows his feet to press up against the grate and then kicks his feet forward, causing the grate to break off and land with a loud clang. Hoping that there isn't anyone nearby that heard that, he crawls out of the vent.

As Craig stands he gets a better look around the room, seeing some wires and outlines of big machinery. But luckily, doesn't see any people. Kenny gets out and stands next to him, drawing Craig's attention to him momentarily as he glances where the wound used to be. He looks forward again and they start to walk deeper into the room, which he realizes is huge. Craig wonders just what exactly this room is and why there are wires everywhere. A loud buzzing could be heard all around them, along with a rise in temperature, as they draw closer to where a massive bundle of wires and machine parts, all connecting to a giant cylinder block of some sort, rests in the center of the room. As they reach the strange block and walk around it looking for a way out, Craig freezes spotting something off in front of it.

"Is that... a person?" he asks quietly.

Kenny's eyes follow where Craig's are, and he sees it too. There was indeed what seemed to be a person. The body, or what remained of them, had wires practically coming out of every part that should've had limbs. Looking more closely, the body from the waist down was gone, having been attached to machines and wires instead, but the top half was still intact for the most part though. The head having some sort of device attached to it, with little lights. The whole sight of it all disturbs Craig, never having seen something like this before.

"...me."

It's small and very faint, but it sounds like a voice.

"..m...e."

It repeats and Craig cautiously walks closer to the person. When he gets close enough to hear what the voice is saying he freezes again, his eyes opening in horror.

"Ki...ll..m..e."

The voice is very small, hoarse and worn, but Craig still understands it.

Kenny walks up next to him, "They're in pain," he says, and looks at the sad sight of the machine mixed flesh being.

"Ple...ase..." they beg.

"I don't understand though. Why are they hooked up to all this machinery?" Craig asks confused.

The person breathes heavily, as a small holographic screen appears in front of them from the head device. The two look at it and see letters start to type out on it.

 _'Mainframe.'_

Craig looks at them, "Mainframe? What do you mean?"

 _'I'm the mainframe, the core of this building.'_

Craig's eyes widen, "What?"

 _'I power everything.'_

Craig stares stunned at them, he didn't know how this was possible. How someone could be the power source to everything in such a massive facility.

"How are you still alive like this?" he asks, looking back at the screen.

 _'I was once fully human like you two. But after I was taken here and tested on. I developed a strange power. One of magnetism and electrical current. When it was discovered, they wanted to harness my power for their personal use. I was seen as an unlimited power supply. They removed all my limbs, but the core of my body and head, so I couldn't break free or run away. Then they attached me to this machine. It was small at first, but over time it grew and grew. And the strain on me became more and more painful. Most core organs and parts of my brain are replaced by artificial ones now. But they still keep me running by force. Because without me, this whole structure would fall. I'm keeping it all together, I'm pulling it together.'_

Craig finishes reading, taking in all of the information. He couldn't help but feel sorry for them and what they had gone through. He would've said that it was unbelievable that someone would do such things, but he knew better. He had experienced first hand what the dark side of humanity was like.

"What happens if you stop?" Craig asks.

 _'Everything will collapse.'_

There's a pause.

"What should we do?" Kenny asks, "If we shut them down, the whole place will go. But if we do that, they will also die."

Craig watches the person, seeing the way they were trying to breathe normal, but it only coming out as ragged heavy breaths under metal chest plates. The sight of it causes an image of Clyde to flash in his mind. Remembering how much pain he had seen him in, and how much pain this person was probably in as well.

"We should shut them down," Craig says. "They're in a lot of pain, like you said. And they're pleading for us to. Besides, if we shut down the core, then this whole place will come crashing down and... there won't be more who have to suffer," he looks at Kenny. "I don't want anyone else to suffer like we have, or like this person has, or anyone else we may both know or not."

Kenny nods, "I understand."

"What do we have to do?" Craig asks, looking back at the screen.

The words seem to type out much faster this time.

 _'There's a tube connected to the back of my head. Pull it out.'_

Craig makes his way around the side of them and examines the long glowing blue tube there, then looks back at the screen.

"What will happen if I do?"

 _'I will start to shut down, once the fluid from the tube stops. Then the system will go in to meltdown and an alarm will go off. They will try everything to turn me back on and keep me alive but, I'll try and override their controls so that they can't. Doing so should also give you two a chance to escape. But it will be limited, I will be fading away as time goes by, and whenever I try overriding the system, it takes up a lot of my energy and can be quite painful. But if this is the end, then I won't mind.'_

"I see..." Craig murmurs and goes back around. "If you think this will end it all, then I'll do it," he grips a hand around the glowing tube tightly, and let's out a slow breath. "Okay, here goes."

He pulls on it, having to use more strength than he thought he would in order to get it out. As he continues to pull out the tube, a very long needle connecting to what he thinks might be the person's brain comes loose, and severs from them with a slick wet sound. And in the next second, blue liquid spills out everywhere from it.

"It's done," Craig says, going back around to the front of the person.

The blue liquid was now begining to pool around the wires and machine parts on the floor, as the screen in front of the person disappears and they open their mouth.

"Th...anks...fellas..."

Craig wears a somber expression hearing that, before turning to start heading off. However he stops, noticing Kenny wearing a bit of a strange expression, looking almost vaguely surprised for some reason.

"Ken—"

A loud blaring sound goes off and the room is quickly filled with red hazard lights. A new screen pops up in front of the person with a count down on it reading 30 minutes.

"We have to go!" Craig yells.

Kenny looks at him and nods, and the two quickly look for a way out of the room. They spot a door opening a couple seconds later and head for it. Craig glances back one more time at the person, hoping that they may now somehow find peace at last, before they exit the room.


	29. Chapter 29

_A/N: It's been a while but here's the next chapter for the story! Enjoy!_

 _Also a couple of song recommendations for this chapter._

 **Starset- My Demons**

 **Starset- Die For You** _(Decided to add this song to playlist, as I feel it fits the story very well.)_

* * *

The door slams shut behind Craig and Kenny just as they exit the room, and locks itself with a small beep. The red hazard lights continue into the hallway they were now in, covering its walls. As they try to figure out where to go, another door opens up ahead of them, as if to answer their unsaid question. They rush towards it, only to enter into a labyrinth of twisted halls.

Voices shout amidst the chaos, about subjects doors opening and escaping or another in the distance, as they head down hall after hall. When coming to an eventual stop, Craig surveys the area, desperate, for anything that could be an exit. When a sign for a staircase is spotted, he directs Kenny towards it. They rush into the staircase and head up it, but find that they only go up one level, like that of the elevator, the stairs were in a separate section from the rest of the building as well.

As they enter back into the halls, some guards run by another one in front of them. The two take a sharp turn down a nearby hall then, so they aren't seen. They reach another staircase that, luckily, isn't to far away and run up the new set of stairs. They make it up to the second level before guards fast heavy steps, echo down from the set above them. They exit on the second level and enter into a hall that is much wider than the others they had been in. Running down it, a loud slam comes from behind. The two glance back to see guards now pouring in from the staircase they just came from. Just as they round a corner into another hall, shots are fired before the sound of something else slamming echos out. Behind them now had a giant metal door blocking off the hall, and the guards.

They come across a hall covered with mirror walls, and nobody else but them seemed to be around now. There was something about this area though, that was giving Craig an eerie vibe. As the two reach the end of the hall, it opens in to a big circular room with mirrors still covering the walls. Their pace slows when entering it, as a familiar woman with short brown hair and glasses stood in the center of it, two armed men on either side of her, dressed in the usual white attire.

"Subject 123 and 122, what a pleasant surprise to see you here," she says with a slight sneer. "I will take it that you two had something to do with all this?" she motions her index finger around the room. "And are the reason we can't leave?" she points to a giant metal door behind her.

"Maybe..." Craig replies.

"How troublesome. You two really have no idea what it is that you've just done have you?" She asks and crosses her arms.

"This all could've been avoided you know... if you all didn't start any of this shit in the first place," Craig says with anger.

"It was for the betterment and protection of our nation, and to keep our civilians safe from unknown threats," she says.

"Right. You keep telling yourselves that," Craig scoffs.

"You know nothing."

"Oh trust me, I know enough." Craig seethes, clenching his hands into fists.

"The amount of hours, days, years, put in to our research..." she trails off. "If it all comes to an end this way, then so be it. But," she reaches into her lab pocket and pulls out a small peculiar looking device in the shape of a gun. " We won't go down alone."

She motions for the two men to go forward, their guns aimed. Craig instinctively takes a protective stance in front of Kenny when they do. Volorha smirks as one of the men grabs Craig and holds him at point blank, she then goes up to him and holds up the small gun.

"You want to kill me yourself?" Craig scoffs. He notices a liquid substance in the gun then, "What are you going to do? Block my power again and kill me?"

"Oh no, that would be far to simple of a death for you," she smiles and places the end of the gun against his neck. "You need to suffer for all that you've cost us."

She pulls the trigger of it, injecting the substance into his neck then. As soon as it enters into his blood, a sharp burning sensation spreads throughout his body. It grows so intense, that he lets out a scream of agony. A shockwave is caused from him because of it, and everyone around him is sent flying back.

"What did you... do to me?!" Craig shouts and places a hand on his neck as faint trickles of blue start to emanate from him.

"I amplified that destructive power of yours," Volorha says with disdain. "You shall die by your very own power. Unable to control it."

Craig's body glows, his veins turning into that familiar bright light, like that of his eyes. He hunches over in pain as a sharp stab rushes up his spine to his head. His head throbs with such intense pressure from inside, that he can't help but let out another scream. An aura forms around him then, and his back arches up right as another sharp stab shoots up his spine and he grabs at his head, the pressure building inside of it unbearable as a hot white light begins to form in his eyes.

A huge blast erupts from his eyes aimed at the ceiling, the force of it so strong that it cuts right through it. The aura around him shifts into a bright blue violent one as it takes over his entire body, lashing out sparks everywhere. Every bit of his being overflowing with this rapid surge of energy all at once. The pain getting to a point of being so strong that he no longer could scream, but his mouth still hung open with the silence of agony.

Underneath the scorching in his eyes, the sensation of them melting in their very sockets spreads across his face. He instinctively goes to cover them, but as soon as the tips of his fingers touch the continuous blast from them, they sear in pain and he jerks them away. The aura around him grows stronger and his body starts to rise into the air from the sheer force of the sparks.

Next to a wall, where the shockwave had sent Kenny, he watches Craig in observational silence. He wants to move, to do something, _anything_ , to help him but he doesn't know what. The frustration causes him tense and close his fists because of it. An erratic spark lashes across his arm then, cutting down to the bone and causing it to bleed. Not even a few seconds later, does it start to heal in that familiar light aura around it. He glances to where Volorha is leaning against a wall and goes over to her. He picks up the small gun device that's near her and examines it. Only half of it was empty, which he figures meant that the shockwave from earlier stopped her from injecting it all. His grip tightens around it and he brings the end of it up to his neck.

"Heh, you think that you can save him?" Volorha laughs with bitter, "You can't save him."

Kenny injects the remainder of the substance into his neck and looks at her, "I can die trying."

As he focuses back onto Craig and walks towards him, tossing the small gun away, a burning sensation spreads and consume him and the wound on his arm closes up fast. His body is covered in a faint veil of yellow-orangish light as the burning grows stronger, but he pays it no mind. The burning is soon taken over by another one, a much warmer calmer one filled with light. As he draws closer to Craig, sporadic sparks strike him, slashing him down to the bone with each hit. But just as fast as they appear, they disappear, his wounds healing in the blink of an eye.

"Stop!" Craig yells, almost as if sensing Kenny grow near. "Don't come near me! I'll hurt you!" there's a brief pause as Kenny comes to a stop. "I don't want to hurt you..." he says, his voice wet and tear filled.

Kenny takes another step forward though, and with each one the light around him grows stronger.

"Kenny, stop please! I can't control it! Stop!" Craig pleads.

But Kenny continues forward unwavered. His steps grow slow as the two now massive auras around them collide into one another, fighting for dominance in the room. When Kenny is within arms length from Craig, wild sparks lash into his flesh almost every half second now, but there's still no reaction to them and he reaches out a hand to Craig, just managing to touch the tips of his fingers.

"Kenny..." Craig sobs.

"Craig, give me your hand," Kenny says as a quick hot flash whips across his cheek.

"Kenny I... I can't see you. I can't see!"

The blinding light makes it hard for Kenny to tell what's behind it, but from what he could make out, was all the fear hidden behind Craig's pain and the invisible tears that were streaming down his face.

"Craig, reach out your hand," Kenny tells him. "Trust me."

With the inside of his head pushing to its limits, like it may explode any second, Craig moves his hands forward in front of him. There's a strong push from his aura clashing against Kenny's, but he steadily keeps moving them forward until Kenny is able to grab a hold of them and pull him down towards himself. There's quite a bit of resistance from the two energies being in such close proximity to one another, but a faint calming warmth makes itself known to Craig as Kenny pulls him into a hug. Despite the wild sparks tearing into him, Kenny's hold on him doesn't lighten and he keeps him in a tight embrace. The blast of static and light continues to surge out of Craig's eyes from over Kenny's shoulder now, singeing the ends of his hair.

"Kenny... I..." Craig sobs raw and hoarse.

"It's okay. I'm right here," Kenny says, moving his face in to the crook of Craig's neck.

A sudden wave of warmth consumes Craig's body. The sparks blasting out of his eyes finally starting to die down. Kenny moves away from his neck then to see that Craig's eyes were gone. The mixed expression of concern and sorrow cross Kenny's features. He carefully places a hand over the empty sockets and the aura around him begins to seep into them. Craig's hands hold onto him, their grip tightening on the now torn jacket he wore. Kenny then tilts his head up and leans in close to him, gently pressing his lips to Craig's.

For a second, Craig isn't sure what is happening until he feels something warm run along his lips. The instant he knows what it is, his mouth opens with a small gasp. When it does, he is quickly engulfed both inside and out by warmth. The horrible burning sensation inside of him being pushed out and gradually being overtaken by the warm calming light instead. His fears melting away as his mind comes back to a steady flow, and only wanting more of this warmth. Something other than the aura slips into him then, and at that, any remaining resistance that his chaotic out of control aura has, disappears out of him.

Kenny moves his hand away from Craig's face and pulls back from the kiss a bit. A small quiet sound escapes Craig at that, as he opens up his newly healed eyes. The first thing they see are Kenny's brilliant blue ones staring back at his. Kenny places a gentle hand on his cheek and runs his thumb across it.

"You can't hurt me Craig. Not ever," Kenny tells him with a smile.

Craig's chest tightens and his breath catches for a moment at the sight. He had missed that smile. Seeing it again before him was almost dreamlike. It's then that he comes to realize that Kenny was still the same. Even if he acted different now, old core remnants of who he was still remained. Even if they were hidden underneath all the years of built up numbness. He could see the old Kenny that was buried away, starting to surface once again. He had been noticing small inklings of it everyday that went by. He places his own hand on Kenny's cheek and smiles back at him, hoping to be able help heal Kenny the same way he did for him.

"My precious light," Craig says with a thoughtful expression.

Kenny's eyes widen a bit at that, causing Craig to feel somewhat embarrassed.

"It's just that, you're always there—you make everything okay—and you take all of the pain away—and guide me—and just— like a light so, uh—shit—no—nevermind, forget I said anything just now," Craig stammers out.

Kenny smiles and a soft laugh escapes him, which causes Craig to redden more. The two are drawn back to reality however, when the building shakes and the last bits of Kenny's aura dies down.

"We need to get out of here somehow," Craig says.

Glancing around, the room was in shambles, all of the mirrors on the walls were shattered now, only to reveal people behind them wearing lab coats. Craig didn't have to think much on them, to know they were probably just like Volorha, who helped conducted the awful experiments. After coming to the conclusion that, everyone was locked in the room with no way forward, Craig looks back from the hall they had come from, but there was now a door sealing it off. He lets out a sigh as it sets in that he and Kenny would most likely be sharing the same fate as these people. But as if on cue, the door forward starts to opens with a metallic sound. Craig gives a confused look, but his eye catches on a surveillance camera right above the door, and the an image of a human attached to machinery flashes through his mind.

"He's helping us," Kenny says, seeming to think the same thing.

"Let's go," Craig says.

They both rush for the door, and the corner of Craig's eyes spotting the other scientists now moving for it as well, climbing over the broken mirror fragments and trying to reach it as fast as possible. Craig grabs a hold of Kenny's hand and picks up speed. As they near the door, he glances back once more, taking everything in, the hole in the ceiling, the shattered walls, the scientists rushing for the door. As they pass through the doorway and into the hall beyond it, Craig's gaze falls on Volorha, who was now standing up with a hand holding her injured side. Her eyes filled with bitterness and resent for him. Craig feels no remorse as turns to look forward again and the door starts to close. The last thing to ever be seen as it shuts, were the panicked, desperate expressions on the scientists faces.

The two keep running until they reach the end of the hall. It opens up into a half oval shaped area, with windows all lined up along the far wall of it, leading to the outside. Craig spots a door there as well, but it requires a keycard. He thinks about trying for it, but when another hard shake happens, he heads to the windows instead, deciding that they don't have enough time to try it. When they reach the windows, they see there's a drop leading in to the lake, similar to last time.

"I could probably take out a window again, but..." Craig hesitates.

After what just happened to him, he wasn't too sure if he would be okay. He squeezes Kenny's hand, and the other looks at him.

"You'll be okay," Kenny tells him, as if reading his thoughts.

Craig pauses, still somewhat unsure until Kenny squeezes his hand back. At that, Craig's mind is made up. He nods at Kenny and looks at the window in front of them. He closes his eyes and takes in a deep breath. The explosions in the facility growing more louder and violent with each passing second. He exhales as that familiar heat grows in his eyes. He takes another deep breath as he opens his now glowing eyes. He concentrates on the window, and a shot of sparks shoots out fast and wide, causing the window to cave in itself and fall out. He closes his eyes, stopping the blast from coming out anymore, and when he opens them again, his eyes are back to normal. They walk to the edge of the empty window frame and look down into the water below. There's a loud sound from the hallway behind them, and they glance at one another once more before looking down, taking a breath, and pushing off falling down to the water below.

There's a loud splash as they hit the freezing cold water. When Craig surfaces, he takes in a sharp burning cold breath as the air stings his lungs. Gasping, he tries his best to hang onto Kenny and guide him to shore. When they reach it, they pull themselves up and move onto the land as best they can. Craig tries his best to keep his breathing as steady as possible, but the cold air was not making it easy. As he sits up, another loud sound goes off, and the windows on the side of the mountain blow out in a massive explosion. Fire soon starts to light up the night sky as smoke escapes from it, going up for miles.

The two of them watch the burning mountain, crumble and fall into pieces. No longer would it harm anymore victims like it did them. No longer would it loom over and torment them. It was now gone, turning nothing more but into debris.

Kenny sits next to Craig, huddling him in an attempt to keep him warm. He, unlike Craig, wasn't shivering or even cold in the slightest of course. Craig turns to him and wraps his shaking arms under the shredded up jacket and around his torso. Trying to get as much warmth from the other as he could. As he leans in closer to him, his head rests against Kenny's and they watch as everything starts to become a distant memory in front of them.

"It's over," Craig says through chattering teeth, and Kenny holds him tighter. "It's finally over."


	30. Epilogue

Two figures walk up an old path in the forest. One of them comes to a stop when the path reaches an opening overlooking the whole forest. The figure, wearing a worn looking blue chullo hat and newer clothes, takes in the sight before them.

"What now?" the other figure, in a new looking orange parka asks walking up next to them.

The figure in the blue chullo glances at the other, before back out at the view, "I'm not sure..."

The figure with the chullo starts to recollect the things that had happened to them in the past few days. Recalling how they walked in the freezing cold for a long time, before they came across a familiar old abandoned building. The figure had gotten a fever that night, so they used a room that had an old bed in it to rest, along with a left over blanket they managed to find and help keep them warm too. However, that blanket only played a small part in what really kept them both warm that night and the following day.

Recalling the rest of the events that follow, cause a slight burn to spread across the figure in the chullo hat. So instead they decide to skip over those memories for now and continue on, recalling passing by a small town and buying new clothes and supplies with money that they still had on them in their pockets. As the figure's thoughts wander more in memory, a sudden glimpse of two familiar faces comes to their mind.

"There are a couple of people I know who said they'd like to meet you," the figure with the chullo says, "then after that, who knows."

The figure didn't really care where they went after that because, whatever, or wherever, the two of them went next in life, the figure knew that they would be okay. Even if another challenge were to arise, they knew that they would be just fine because, they have each other. And as long as they have one another, there's nothing they can't do.

"Who?" the orange figure asks.

"You'll see."

The one in the blue chullo hat smiles, and reaches out a hand to the other. The one in orange looks at them, curiously for a moment, then smiles back at them and takes their hand in theirs, interlocking their fingers. The two of them then turn, hand in hand and continue on their path.

 **End**

* * *

 **A/N: And that's the end folks! I just want to say thank you to all of those that stuck with this story till the end, it means a lot to me. I had a lot of ups and downs during the process of it all. But I'm glad I was able to finally finish this story. I hope that you guys enjoyed reading it. This story took a long time to put together and get it up. Hopefully it was an enjoyable read lol.**

 **And if you're someone who checks the story both here and on AO3, there is some bonus content linked to this final chapter on there. Mainly being some art and an extra side chapter. But yeah, if you're interested go check it out!**

 **And that's everything! Alright, thanks again all! Take care! Peace!**


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